VOLUME  X X V I I                              April 1, 1951  .- Grand Rapids, Michigan                                        NUMBER 13
                 I
                                                                                 death rejoice. in  vic%orious hope, and when all the
                      DIT  AT%OPJ  `I' when they who dwell in the valley of the shadow of.
                                                                                 angels `of God worship Jesus, the First-begotten from
                                                                                 the dead,' saying: Worthy is th,e.  Lamb that hath"been -
                                                                                 slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and
     Woman, -Why Weepest Thou?.                                                  might, .and honor, and.glory,  and blessing. Ten thous-
                                                                                 and times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands
                          /
             "But  Mary was standing  without  a$ the tomb weep-                 of angels lift up their glad voices and chant and sing
           ing:  so,  as  she  wept,  she   stooped  and   ,looked  into  the    in joyful lays at this very moment. Is it the moment,
           tomb;  and  she   beholdeth   two  angels   in  white  sitting,       that believing, -Abraham, and all the patriarchs with
           one  at  the  head  and  one   at  the  feet,   whefe   the  boidy    and after him, saw afar,' and. . .: .rejoiced!
           bf  Jesus  had  lain.  And  they  say  unto  her:  Woman,                It is the time to. which w,e, as the New Testament-
           why  weepest   thou  ?'  She   saith  etinto  them,   Because
           they  have   take6  away  my  Lord,  and  I  -know   not              saints from Gentile lands, look back.and see'and con-
           ,\vhere   they  have  laid  Him   .  .  .  .  Jesus  saith  unto fess that we have born anew unto a 1iving:hope  through
           her,  Woman,-why   peepest  thou?   .  .  .  .                        the  resurr,ection  of .Jesus Christ from the dead.' Be-          .
                                                        John  ZO`:il-17.         cause of this glad .day~.of all days we gather on each
    Weeping Mary !                                                               First Day of the week and sing a new song, saying
    Standing ,at the open mouth of `the grave of her                             unto our ,Lord and King: Worthy art Thou Lord Jesus,
"Lord, Who had taken captivity captive ! She-weeps                               Thou faithful Witness, Thou .First-born  of the dead,
here at the open grave from .whence, at this very'mo-                            and Thou Ruler of the kings of the earth to receive
ment, no doubt, the other Galilean women were,hasfen-                            the Kingdom of David, our father, forever!
ing to the disciples and brethren, with fear and great                              But Mary was standing at the tombweeping. .'
joy, to ,tell the glad Gospel story of the resurrection                           At  such a time as this.  : . .         :          I
of Jesus, the crucified'one  !                                                     Woman, why  weepest thou?
  How utterly incongruous ! How this marvelous
fact of the glorious. resurrection, which shall turn all                                               .wx--dl                  \
our sorrows into eternal and abiding joys, is hid from                              My Lord it was! saith weeping. Mary.
the weeping ,eyes of Mary !                                                         Him, `they have taken.~  And I know not where they
   `The mighty angel of the Lord had suddenly descend- have placed Him. . . -.
ed from heaven not long prior to this time ; he had roll-,                        . He, the. Lord, Who had, the power to east out the         .
ed away the stone from the door of the tomb, and had                             demons out of me, a'poor, sinful and wretched .woman.
sat upon it; he had proclaimed the Word of -peace to the                         Seven devils had gone forth from Mary, Magdalene.
woman, telling them: Fear not ye, for I know that ye                             Her soul, which had been'. possessed by demons had
seek Jesus, the crucified one. He is not here but. is                            been set free from these powers of hell.. Joy and glad-
risen, come see the place where the Lord has lain.                               ness had ag,ain become .the -cherished portion of this' ,              ;
    And Jesus Himself had appeared to the hastening                              liberated Mary of Magdala. And for the joy of this-                    _
women on the way, telling them to go and tell the glad                           great saIvation from the very power of th.e devil, Mary,
tidings to His brethren. . . . .                                         e       together with other women `of whom Jesus had been
  But Mary was standing without at the tomb weep-                                the beneficent' Liberator from, sicknesses and demon-
ing at such a time as this.                                                      possession, was ever. afterward ministering to the
   It is the time when all the `prisoners .are set .free,                        wants'of Jesus from their substance.


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.                                                     T     H    E             ~MNDARII   BEARER

           0, let it never be forgotten, that from that moment                          .BL& M&y's love and devotion must find its fit ex-
       life had taken on a new meaning for this Mary of                             pression .in the anointing of Jesus. So early in the
      Magdala. In a sense, she had  ceased  to live, and  511                       morning, while the first break of the dawn is on the
       her life was now wrapped ufi in .li.er Lord  and Liber-                      eastern ,horizon,  Mary hastens with the other women
ator,  as  .she understood Him.                    .`Iil  '                         to the sepulchre. And when they arrive Mary seei the
           Her soul cleaved  `to Jesus.  Not&fig was ever to                        stone removed and concludes, that the grave has been
       separate h&ag`ain..from  His love. In Him she had a broken open by the enemies, and that the body ,of Jesus,
      glad future.  .-From   %ow on all would be well. And,                         her Lord, had been stolen. She had ran and told this
       ,iYhat is' morei'nothing Gould ever dis'turb `it. . . .                      erroneous report to Peter and John saying: They have
           But things had begun tb change. Jesus had set -His taken -the Lord out of the sepulchre and we know not ..
       face to go to Jerusalem. And when they were on the where they have placed Him. . . . :
       way; Jesus had walked in, silence before them, so silent                         John and Peter had hastened to see what had.`hap-
       and awful in the trouble of .His soul, that the disciples                    pe&d. John had seen&e clothing and believed.. Peter
       and the Galilean  women had become deeply disturbed..                        had gone out thinking about all these things. The
           Ah, but this shall never happen' to Him, what He women, in the meanwhile, had heard the report from
       had told them, takingThem aside by the: way, namely,                         the angel, had met Jesus on the way, and were now
       that the Son of Man would go up to Jerusalem to be                           hastening l;o tell the ,Good News co the brethren.
       delivered into the bands of the- elders, scribes and                             But Mary was disconsolate.
       chief priests ; that He will be delivered into the hands                      She is like the woman in the Song of  Songs, who
       of the  aGentiles,  be  mbcked,  scourged;  condetined  to                   pours out her' heart in disconsolate strains, saying :
       death, be crucified. . .-' .          `.                        `.           By night on nhy bed, I sought Him.whom my soul lov-
           But the impossible had happened!                                         eth: I sought Him, but I found  I&m not. . . . The
           Oh, Mary had -seen the cruel crucifixiQn. Had not                        watchmen that go about the city found me ; to whom
       she and Mary, the moth& df Jesus, and-Mary  the wife                         I said, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?
       of Cleopas, stood beside the Cross early. in the day,                            My Lord have they taken, and I knqw not where
       before the thqee hours of darkness had fallen over all                       they have placed Hi& Disconsolate Mary; too dis-
       the `earth. And had she not stood, with all the Galilean                     tracted by grief and woe &I have noticed that the hight
       women and with all the acquaintances of J,esus,  from                        is past and that the day. has come. . . .
       afar; yet as- near as they dared, when the Rotian sol-                          ,Whom seeketh thou?       1..
       diers bring the vinegar to Jesus' parched throat and                             Turn thee'about, and let thy soul_ live.
       tongue, %nd He, her Lord, had said : I. thirst? And                              I adjur,e thee, 0 Daughter of Jerusalem above, by
       had she not heard Him cry with a loud voice: <Father                         the roes-and hinds of the field, 1ook"behind  thee.
       into Thy hatid I commit my spirit? !                                           And weep ho more!                             `_
                                                                                                                 .
           And then, J&us, her Lord, had boGed His head and
       died. And the kind hands of Joseph of -Arimathea.aid                             .-
       of  ,Nicodemus,   ,both  men from  th,e  Sanhedrin, yet be-                      Mary! ,
       lievers true, had taken Jesus from the Crdss, 2nd had
       buried Him in the tomb &here never befdre the head                               Thus it is that Jesus add?esses this daughter from
       had lain. And again, had not Mary'.been  present on                          the city of Magdala . And the sound of Jesus' voice,
       this day of awfLi1 events to the very end. Had not she                       calling her name, awakened in her a joyful recognition.
       and the othes Mary observed the burial .of                                       Ohi the intense happiness of that moment for Mary.
                                                                      Jesus, ob-
       served how t&e body--was placed tenderly in the grave                            Joyful and spontaneous she rep&es in mutual love: ,,
       by loving and believing ~hands ? And, then, &hile the                        Rabboni !                                                   e
       sun sank in the west and .the Sabbath drew nigh>`had                             Her Lord and Savior she has fdund, he has come
       not Mary of Magdala and the other Mary- sat down to awaken her, dut of the grief, that will not be com-
       over against the tomb. . . .                                                 forted. Only the finding of her Savior can satisfy
          TOO much had,happened  in one day fbr Mary to be the panting longing of her disquieted and disconsolate
       able to see it all in its proper  light. And, pray, how                      soul. . , `.
       could she under&and it all? But one thing is certain,                            But here is far more. Here is more  th:n mere
       Mary's Lord was not cast-forth as an' accursed one to                        finding. Here is instruction pf love !
       defile the land, or to be &ten by the dogs as a Jezebel,                         Mary must learn the lesson that her Lord had not
       but He ,had had the h%norable burial of the Kings: "                         been stolen at all. Cruel and ruthless hands and love-'
          Assured that all was  wel!, and that the body of less souls who mocked all her love, had not taken away
       Jesus was tenderly placed`in the+ grave, Mary Magda- her Lord at all. `The conclusion at which she had
       lene had returned to the hdly city to-se&,  a,ccording to. jumped an ,hour earlier at `the grave was not true at
       t h e   c o m m a n d m e n t ,                                       \.'    .all, Her report to Peter and John had been `wholly


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                                             THE  STANDARB  BEARER.i_;, ,  :                                                                                                   2 9 1

      erroneous and contrary to th.e glad fact .of &he resur-       death. And, listen, my .beloved  brethren, death has
      rection.                                      r               .been  swallowed.up   to victory. Death did  no't swallow
II        Mary. . . .Rabboni ! . .                                  me up, but it became the womb of the morning ! Day
          In that one g!ad moment all the mist l&d rolled           is born out of night, thy Day-Star from.  on high has
      away from before the tear-filled eyes bf this beloved         arisen out of the depths of darkness.
      daughter of Jerusalem; H&r Lover had not forgotten.                  ,Oh, jealousy is cruel aaShe61,  but love is as strong
      In tender and saving love He comes to greet lier as           as death. The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a
      the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince            very flame of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench
      of peace.                                                     my love, nefther can floods  di-own it. . . .  m
          All her sorrow is turned to joy, and her te&s s,hali             Tell it, to my brethren.                             .
      be wiped from her eyes. But in this glad moment she                  Tell it to them, whom I am `r& ashamed to call my
      must learn the full truth of all that has c?nie to pass,      brethrgn. `I, indeed, came to become partaker of your
      in this sorrow that endureth for the night but which          flesh and blood, that I might 
      is followed by the joy that cometh in the morning.                                                                             COhqUer  him, who h&d
                                                                    the might of  death, that is the A&-Foe, Satan:. He ,
          Mary. . . .Rabboni! .                                     would  qeench  my love for you. He has poured all
          `jI'ouch me not, Mary. . . .                              the waters of his fury atid wr&th over my soul. He.
       Ah, do not be  disappointtd,' my beloved sister. It  ' has. laughed at `me iti the. depthq of Sheol. Oh, his
      is  rio reason for sorrow but rather for joy that you         jealousy was cruel, his cunning was great. But many
      must not touch me, hot cling to me, not will to hold _ w&ers did not quench my love for you. . . .
      me fast, in attempting to keep me here for&er ai thy.                I am going up.                           .
      side.                                                                All is for your profit;
          It is profitabl,e  for you` that I go up to the Father           I shall come again to receive you unto myself in the
      at His right hand.                                            glory of our  F&her and of our God.  : . .
         Remember how, when I yas with you, I spoke to                     Then shall it be said: thou that dwellest in the
      you' of these things. I will surely go to .the Father.        gardens, thy companions  hearken for thy voice: cause
      I  gd to prepare a  .place  for you and for all thy-fair      me- to he& it
      sisters, for they are Virgins. I  hav6  cleanse6 you,                Make haste, My  Beloved. . . .  `  1.                                                     -
      my beloved, in my perfect sacrifice on the  Crbss. I                 Tell, my brethren  !
      have not yet gone up, but 1:go up.                                                                                                       Geo. G. Lubbers.
         Presently when I shall have gone up,.then you `may                                                                                                               \
      see your desire fulfilled. . . .                                :                                                                              .         ,
         Then shall thou, and'&11 of the church, be beautiful         :                          - -                                 -
      upon the niountains of Z'ion arid Jerusalem, 10 .Princes                                                                                                                               -_
      daughter, thou whose ; body is like a rqund gohlih,                  ,
     wherein no mingled wine is wanting, thou whose waist                            THANI$FUL.  COMMEMORATION
      is like a heap of wheat set, abdut with lilies. . . .         Monday,   April  2, inarks   the  fifty-.fifth anniversary  of  the
         Touch me not, Mary !                                       anniversary  of  the  mar&ge   of  OUT  dear   parents,
         Rabboni !  -                                                                                    John-S.  De  tier
                                                                                           1                      an&
                                                                                -         Elizabeth De  Boerxnee  Fennema)                                     _,
;        Go tell my brethren !                                 -     It  is  with  deep  gratitude   to  God  for  all  the  blessings   of  grace
        Stay not thy feet upon the way to the city that is          the  Lord  bestowed  upon  them  durimg   all  these   many  years  of
     spiritually called Sodom  and Egypt!, Hasten upon thy          holy,marriage,   that, we as their children  remember  this occasion.
     way, fairest maiden, and bring the tidings of the              Our  parents   have   always  sought   our  welfare   in  every  possible
     Bride-Groom.                                                   w a y . -   Above   all  we  are  grateful   for  their   daily  striving   to
         Tell them, that -I am. passing through.          -         direct   our  footsteps   in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. To  G&be   all  the
         Ah, tell, them, that the king's business requireth         praise  through   Jesus   Christ   our  Lord.  '
 haste.                                     ,-     i.,                                                 Their   grateful   children:
         Nay, my being for  three days and  $hree nights                                                      Mr.  a;nd  Mrs.  Simon   Dk  Boer
 in the heart of the earth was not a slackening of the                               .                         <Rev.  and  Mrs.  Peter   De.Boer
     pace of the great love, that brings all mine own elect                                                     Mr.  and  i$rs.  Clarence   De  Boer   0                                ,
 to the Great Day of My coming. Behold I time quick-'                                                              Foyrteen   grand-children
 ly. I will, that ye all may presently be where I am,                                                              and two great  gratid-children.
and that ye may behold my glory ! Even in the mom&t iO0  Aubti  Ave.,  N.  .E.                                      .'                         -          '
 of your'great  sorrow I hastened through the' pangs of             Grand Rapids 3, Mjch.
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         292            -                                                 L  -            .rHE                     STAN'DARD-BEARER                                                   -.
                                                                                                                                                    .      -

                                     The Standard Bearer
              Semi-ionthly. except Monthly id July and  Aupus~                                                                                   EIjIT@RIALS
                                                  P u b l i s h e d   B y   `:-                                                                                       _
                              The Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                     Box 124, Sta. C., Grand Rapids,  Mich.                                                               The Declaration Of P&ncipltk
                                                                                                                                          . -                                         I           ., 1
                                     E D I T O R :   -  Re"v.  H .   IgoekSema.                                                                                 .          .
              Communications relative   to  contents   should  be  addressed   to                                                         I think that  thus  f$r I have clearly  ,shown   from
         REV.   H.  HOEKSEMA,   1139  Franklin   `it.,  S.  E.,  Grand  Rapids,                                                    the Confessions that  t&e promise of God is  imcon-
      Michigan.-                                                                                                                   `ditional, that it is meant only for the elect, whether -
              Lumnlunicatiolls relative to subscription should be addressed                                                        ;ou conceive of them as h the counsel of God or .as
         t o         Mr.  J.  BOUWMAN,.  1350  Gildings   S  I$.,  Grand  Rapids   7,
         Mich.   Announcements   and   Obituaries.  must  be  mailed  to  the                                                      believers, that is, as those in whose heart God effica-
         above   address   and   will   .be  publi.-hcd  .a$  a  fee  of  $1.00  for  each                                         kiouSly works faith; and that th&efore  faith is not a
 notice.                                                                                                                           condition, but  a mere instrument or means of God
      '  Kenetials:-Unless   a  definite  request   for  discontinutiee   is  re-                                                  `whereby the elect are brought into'saving. contact, with
        ceiled,   it  is  assumed   that  the  subscriber   wishes   his  subscription                                             the promise  of God.
        to  continue'without`  the  forma%ty  of  a  renewsi   order.                                                                     We will now continue the `Declaration, for it' can
                                                  PTice: $3.00 per  `ye?r                                                          only be benefici$ that "our churches are thoroughly
         lintfred   .as  Second   Class  Mail   at  Grand  Rapids,   Michigan.                                                     acquainted with its truth. _
                                                                                                                       I                  The declaration contiques as -follows : "And that
                                                                                                              I                    the election of  ,God,  and consequently  the  6fficacy of
                                                                                                                                   the death of Christ and the. promise of the gospel, is
                                                                                                                                   not conditional is evident abundantly from the follow-
                                                                                                                                   ing articles of the Cahons.
                                                                                                                                          "Canons I, A, 10: `The good pleasure of God is
                                                  CONTENTS                                                                         the sole cause of this gracious election ; which cloth not
                                                                                                                                   ,conZiist  herein;- that out of all possible qualities and
      LMEDITATION--
                  _ Wcman, Why Weepest  irhou  ? ._.___ I _____ I......-...........,........-.... 289                              actions of Ten IGod' has chosen some as a condition of
                             Rev.,  Geo.  C.  Lubbers                                                                              salvation ; but that he was pleased out of the common
                                                                                                                                   mass of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a
      EDlTOi%IALS-                                                                                                                 peculiar people to himself, as. it is written, For the
                    The ,Declaratioli  if Principles .__________..___._______________________.  :_ 292
                    Answer  to Brother  Monsma  ____________________~...~..........  ~....._._...  295                             chiidren being not yet born .neither having clone any
                    OF  Books   ____________________.............~.............~................................   295             good or evil, etc., it was said (namely to Rebecca).-:
                       -Rev.  H.  Hoeksema                                                                                         the elder shall serve the. younger  ; as it is written,
                   The  .Issue  ,Clearly  brawn  ________  :...: _.__________________...................  297                      Jacob have I loved,  but Esau have I hated. Rom. 9 :11,
                             Rev.   H.  Veldman                                                                                    12, 13. And as many as were ordained tie eternal life
                                                                    ,.                                                             believed. Acts 13 :48.' "
         OUR                        DOCTRINE-                                                                                         In the, first place, let me remark tha;t in this article
                    Days or Periods _____________.____~  ________  :..I ________._____.____________I_________  299
                             Rev.   H.  Velclman                                                                                   of the Canons the word.cause  occurs, which, according
                                                                                                                                   to Prof. Schilder,:  can: refed only to time, and not to
                    Vain  Repetiticms  in grayer .._._.________:  _________....__________________  .: 301
                        Rev.   G.  M.  Ophoff                        '                                                             eternity.     But in this article the word  came occurs
                                                                                                                                   evidently as. referring to the etenal counsel of God :
                    Giving Account _.._.. I . . . . . . .._... . . .._. _______.._______________________________...         304    "The good pleasure of God is the sole cause of this
                        `Rev.  A.  Cammenga                                                                                        gracioug election."
         CONTRIBUTIONS-                                                                                                              But what I wish to emphasize in this  connectioxl
                             Mr.  H..Van  Putten.                                                                                  `is  especially the fact that  iri this  .article for the first
        FROM  HOLY   WRIT-                                                '                                                        t&e the term conditions  is put in the mouth of the
                  1  Exposition  of Luke  2.~40-52 .._ _ ___________________...........~............ 306                           Remonstrants.          They taught %hat out 0% all possible
                       Rev.   Geo.  C.  Lubbers                                                                                    qualities an! actions of men God has chosen some as
         IN  HIS  FEAR-                                                                                                            a condition of  salVation.".  N~ow it `is well known
                   Church  Membership   in His?  FFr _____________ ;.- ..__________________  308                                   to *hat the Remonstrants referred by.these  conditions.
                             R'ev.  H.  C.  Hoeksema
i        a                                                                                                                         They meant that  forkseen  faith and obedience and
         PERISCOPE-                         _        '                                                                             faithfulness and  perqeverance  are conditions in the
                    No L "Double-track" Theology  . . ..____...._______  ~__.___._________________ 310                             counsel of God unto salvation. .And it stands to reason
                             Rev.J.Howerzyl                                    _           ,.,             ,`
                                                                                                             ,                     that if foreseen faith- on the part Of map is a condition
                                                                                                                            -
                               ,                                               ~                *                                  of salvation in the counsel of God, it must be so in
                                                                                                     .'                                                                         `\
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                                I     .                T-B..E..  .STANDARD   BEiRER.                                                                %,             .`293 i

 a c t u a l   r e a l i t y
                         The .R,ev. J. G. Feenstra in  ,his "De is also based on-foreseen obedience and foreseen fierse-
 Dordtsche Leerregelen" writes on this article of the verence. And therefore;, it -remains conditional until                                                                            -
 Canons as follows:                         _     I                       the end. Upon condition that man believes, upon con-                                                               .
          "`The- Remonstrants maintain very nicely the name :                     dition that man walks~in the way'of  God's precepts, on '
 good pleasure. The Bible does the same. thing; And condition, therefore, of, his being faithful, and on `con- -
 they want to -appear as angels' of light. When they                              dition that he`perseveres unto the. end,. man is saved. '
 come on wooden shoes, you hear them come, and that. The whole matter of  `.salvation  bedomes  conditional
 may not be allowed. They ~taught,  that the pleasure                             from beginning to ,end, once you- have .maintained  the `^
 of God consists in this; that God- out of all possible                           proposition that faith is a condition unto salvation. `..
 conditions chose the act of faith and obedience. Re-                                 The Declaration continues:                       .                  -                       `-
 jection of Errors, I, 3.                  That *God did not demand                   "And in the same chapter of the Canons, `B, 3, the
 heavier conditions is. according, to His good pleasure.                          errors' are repudiated of those `who teach.: "That the
 That He reckoned the incomplete as complete, is ac- .good pleasure and purpose of aGod, of which Scripture
 cording to His good pleasure.`, But the conditions re-                           makes mention in the doctrine -of election. does not
 main. And with this the entire thought of the good                               consist in this,, that IGod chose certain .persons' rather .-
`pleasure is completely removed."                              ,'                                                                                                        _....
                                                                                  than-others, but in this that he chose'out of all possible-;.
          And again he writes:                                       /           :conditions  (among which are also the works of the
          "The good pleasure of :God excludes every condi-                        law), or out. of the'whole order of things, the act of
tion, all merit and fitness. Good pleasure is ,uncon-                             faith which from its very nature is undeserving, as
ditional. God chose out of the corrupt human race                                 well as its incomplete obedience, as a condition of salr
whomever He will. And He does not have to give ac- vation, and that he- would graciously consider this, i.n--
count to us. And of no'one did He ask counsel. We                                itself as a complete obedience and .count it worthy of,
&not cheek up on God. We may not criticize Him, the reward of eternal life.' "
nor may we defend Him, for both are sinful."                                          We will not repeat what we said. before about the..
          This is indeed Reformed language, and clearly Arminian .that faith according to the counsel of, God
teaches that there are no, conditions on the part of man                         is a condition of salvation. That this error is Arminian
which he must fulfill inorder to obtain salvation at                             is very plain from the above article of. the Canons..
all...                                                                           The Rev. Eeenstra%  the above quoted work writes ;-
          The Declaration continues :                                                "The Remonstrants teach:                     ,                               *.
     "In Canons I, B, 2, the errors are repudiated of those                          "I. That God did not elect certain persons.
who teach `That there are .various  kinds of' election                               "II. That ,God might have proposed several differ-
of God unto eternal life : the one general and indefinite,                       ent `conditions. _                                     _.
the. other particular and definite; and that the latter                              "III. That God has chosen faith as a `condition.
in turn is either incomplete, revocable, non-decisive                                "But:" ,                     I     '                     _           :`.                 ---'
and condition%l,  or complete, irrevocable, decisive and
absolute.`Q"                                                                         "IV. Thus the merit of Christ becomes without.
          The meaning of this is plain.                                          `effect.                   `-               :
                                                  It is based upon the
same teaching of the Remonstrants that God elected                                   "V. The Scriptures teach -otherwise."
on the ground of foreseen faith. Hence, they teach                                 c The Declaration continues :                                                        `_
that election is in the first place! general and indefinite.                         "Again, in the same chapter of the Canons, B, 5,.
This, of course, would include all men: in a certain* the errors are rejected of those who teach that `faith,
sense all men are elected7  For the death of Christ is                           the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness and perse-
meant for all men without distinction. There is no verance are not fruits' of the unchangeable election
particular .atonement.  `On the other hand, election is                          unto glory, but are conditions, which, being required
also called particular and< definite, that is : God chose. before hand, were foreseen as being met by those who
those of whom He foresaw that. they,,would  believe in                           will befully elected, and are causes without which the
Christ. But even this election  -is not  de'cisive. It is                        unchangeable election to glory does not occur.' "
either "incomplete, revocable, non-decisive and b condil                            Again, it is not necessary-for us to repeat'what we
tional, or complete, irrevocable, decisive and absolute."' have said before. But I want to call your attention to
For when you once introduce conditions into the salva-                           the fact that when once faith is made a condition unto
tion of man and into. the counsel of God, you must keep                          salvation, you have to continue to speak of conditions
that salvation and counsel conditional to the very end.                          unto the very end. Not only faith, but also .holiness,
It is not only election on foreseen faith which the Re-                          godliness, and. perseverance are conditions that must
monstrants taught, but that faith can be lost and the                            be met -unto the-salvation of the people of God.
believer can become faithless. And therefore election                            ' The Declaration continues:                '


                                                    r                                                             0

 2     9    4                          THE  STANDARDBEARER
                                                                  -. . .
      "I?.inally, we refer to th.e statement of the Baptism     appropriates him, and seeks nothing more besides him.'
Form : `And although our young-children do not under-           For it must needs follow, either that all things, which
 stand these things, we may-not.therefore exclude them          are requisite to our salvation, are not in Jesus Christ,
 from baptism, for as they are tiithout their knowledge         or if all things are in him, that then those who possess
partakers of .the condemnation in. A,dam,  so are they          Jesus Christ through faith, have complete salvation in
 again received unto grace in,%hrist.' That here none him. Therefore, for .any to assert, that Christ is not
 other than the elect children of the covenant &re, meant       sufficient, but that something more is required besides
 and that they are unconditionally, without `their know-        him, would be too gross a b.rasphemy  : for hence it
 ledge, received unto grace in Christ; in the same way would follow, that Christ w~as but half a Savior. There-
 as they are under condemnation in Adam, `is very evi-          fore we justly say wit hPau1,  that we are justified by
 dent."                          '                              faith alone, or by faith without works: However, to
      The force of this- argument is very evident. Our          speak more clearly, we do .not mean, that faith itself
 children' are without their knowledge partakersof the          justifies us, for it is only an instrument with which we
 condemnation. in Adam by nature. What does this                embrace Christ our Righteousness. But Jesus Christ,
 mean? It means nothing else than that. without their           imputing to us all his merits ,and so many holw works
 knowledge they are,under,  the guilt of Adam, and born         which he  ,has done- for us, and in our stead, is our
 incapable of doing `any good- and totally  deprave'd.          Righteousness. And faith is an instrument that keeps
 This certainly is not an objective sentence of God,            us in kommunion  with him in all his benefits, which,
 which they must accept in' order. to be actually, under        when become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit
 guilt and actually in corruption, but is actually reality.     us.of our sins.'
 But in the same way, that is, without their knowledge,              "Confer also Netherland.Confession,  Articles 33:35,
 the childr,en of the covenant are received unto grace          quoted above.
 in Christ. Also this cannot mean that they have an
 objective bequest on the part' of God unto. salvation,           "Again, confer Canons of Dordrecht II, A, 8, quo&
 or an objective offer of the promise, of which all th'e        ed above. .
 children of the covenant. in the -dispensation of the               "In Canons III  & IV, A, 10 we read: `But that
 historical..line of the covenant are participants on-eon-` others .who are calted by the gospel, obey the call, and
 dition that they believe and obey. Because, in the first ,are converted, is not to be ascribed to the proper exer-
 place, as we have said.. before, children cannot fulfill       cise of free will, .whereby one distinguishes himself
 any conditions. But in the second place, and what is           above others, equally' furnished with grace sufficient
 more to the point'in this connection, is the fact that if      for faith and conversions, as the proud heresy of Pe-
_ this were the meaning the comparison tiould  not hold         lagius maintains; -but it must be wholly ascribed to
whatsoever. `The comparison is between actual con-              God, who `as he has chosen his own from eternity in
 demnation and actual corruption on the -one hand, and          Christ, so he confers upon them faith and repentance,
 actual grace in Christ on the other. And therefore: rescues them from the power of darkness, and trans-
 `when the Baptism Form states that' our children with-         lates them into the `kingdom of his own S.on, that they
 out their knowledge are partakers of _ the grace in            may show forth the praises of him, iho hath called
 Christ and' receive that grace, it ce&ainly~  must mean        them out of darkness into his marvelous light; aild
 that they are partakers of actual grace, that. they are        may glory not in themselves, but in the Lord a&ordin.g
 regenerated and have the faculty of faith given to             to the testimony of the apostles, in various places.'         '
 them by God. But that this cannot refer. to all the                 "Again ,in the same chapter of the Canons, Art. 14,
 children that `are born in the historical' line of the dis-    we read: `Faith is therefore to be considered as the
 pensation of the covenant, but only to the elect, is `also     gift `of God, not on account of its being offered by
 -plain: For in this sense ,a11 the children of the cove-       God to man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure ;
 nant head for head are certainly not received  mlto            but ,because it is `in reality conferred, breathed, and
 grace in Christ..                                              infused into him; or even. because God ,bestows the
      The Declaration continues:          :                     power or ability to believe, and then expects that man
      "That faith- is not, a prerequisite. or condition unto    should by the ,exer"cise' of his own free will,-consent to
 salvation, but a gift of God, and a ,God-given, instru- the terms of salvation, and actually believe in Christ;
 ment whereby we appropriate the salvation in Christ.           but because he -who works in man both to will and to
 This is plainly taught in the. following. parts of our' do, and indeed all things in all, produces both the will
 confessions. .                                                 to believe, ,and the act of believing also.' "
      "Heidelberg Catechism, Qu. 20: `Are all men then,             Let me first of all call your attention to the propo-
 as they attain the true knowledge of this great mys-           sition which we mean to, prove by these parts of the
 tery, the Holy IGhost kindleth in our hearts an upright Confession. It is this : "Faith is not a prerequisite or
 faith, which, embraces Jesus Christ, With all his merits,      condition unto salvation, but `a gift of God ,and a God-


                                           THE   STANDARD   BEARE,R                                                                                  2         9    5
                                                                                                                        _.-  -.---  -_
 given instrument whereby we appropriate the salva-             the actual believing are gifts .of God, which He works
tion      in.lChrist."     -                                    in the believer continually.
    This is proved-first of all from the quotation from                      That all this is certainly not the same as the propo-
.the Heid. Gat., Qu1 20. For there we are taught that           si.tion "faith is a -condition" ought. to be. plain to all
 only those are saved who-are ingrafted into Christ,            that can understand the Confessions.                                          "
 and recei6e all His benefits by a true faith. The fact                                                                                   If.  H .
 is that to be ingrafted into Christ is a passive idea.
 Man has nothing to do with it. We are ingrafted into-             .                               -.n  -
 Christ by a true faith through an act of God alone.                                                                                          _--
 And by that act of faith we receive all the benefits of                      Answbi to Brother Monsma
 Christ. It is true  that in. the German original we                               -  ".i.,  .,
 read : "Und alle Seine Wohltateh  ahnehmen." That is :                      In reply to brother 0. `Monsma, I can be brief.
 "and accept all his benefits." But this does not make
 one particle of difference. For, in the first place, un-         ' 1. I refuse to enter into anymore controversy with
 less' we are first ingrafted into Christ, we certainly         the Rev. Petter.                                        ,. .
 can never perform the act of faith whereby we accept                        2. As to. the brother's second question, we all be-
 the benefits of Christ. But, in the second place, ac-          !ieve that God changes the "condition" of His children;
 cording to the rest of the Confessions, as in Canons           by nature dead in sin, from death into life, from sin                                               .
 III & IV, Art. 14; even the act'of faith is a gift of `God.    into holiness, and that in that "condition" he works
And therefore, in no sense of the word can faith be out his own salvation with fear and, trembling. This,
 called a' condition, but it is certainly a God-given in-       refers to the wellknown distinction .between  %tate"
 strument, whereby we receive IChrist  and all His bene-        and "condition.",.  -,s.
 f i t s .                                                                   It is, therefore, perfectly Reformed .to speak of
    The same is true of the Netherland Confession,              "condition" in the sense of "mode or state of being."
Art. 22, where it is said that faith "is only an instru-                     But it also ought to be cl-ear that there is a sharp
ment with which we embrace Christ our Righteous-                difference between saying that we do something .& a
ness.." And once more in the same article : "Faith is           condition .which God has wrought in us, and saying
an instrument that `keeps us in communion with him              that God will do something on a condition which we
in all his benefits." Now it ought to be plain to all           must first meet-
that can read and understand that condition and in- ~                   In the latter sense faith is not a condition.
strument are certainly not the same, but denote'radi-                                                                                     H. H.`
tally different conceptions; A condition is something                   ,                                                      .
which man must fulfill in order to obtain salvation and                                            o-&o'
                                                                                                            -  G&l
to receive the promise. But an; instrument is a God-                                                                                .
given means whereby we are placed into contact with                                                 (-Jf:IjbojBs
the promise and with the whole of salvation. Faith,                     `.            . .             .!
therefore, is certainly not a condition, but is an instru-
ment according to the clear language .of our confes-            The Life Story of Dr. Lee -ii'. Hwkenga, `by the Rev.
sions:                                               :                        L.. J. Lamberts ; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.,
    And the same is true of the articles of the Canons                  Grand Rapids, Michigan, Price $2.50.                                         ,  ,,_
                                                                                                                 -;.
to which we referred above. ' God has chosen*His  own                   This is a very interestingly written account'% the
from eternity. And upon them He confers faith and               life and `labors of Dr. L.. S. Huizenga? from his boy-
repentance, rescues them from the power of darkness,            ho.od days in the Netherlands, through his student
and translates them into the kingdom--of His own Son,           days, his labors in the Indian mission field, up to his
 that they may show forth the praises of Him who hath           departure from this earthly tabernacle when he labor-
called them out of darkness into .His marvelous light.          ed as a. missionary in China.
And again, according to.Art. 14 of this chapter of the                  The book is written-by a very personal, intimate
Canons, faith is a gift of God that cannot be accepted          and warm friend of Dr. Huizenga as is evident  .-
or rejected by man at his pleasure, but -is effica+ously5,-!  .throughout.  this biography. It makes very easy and
yrought in him. Nor is it thus, that faith as a power           interesting reading and will, no doubt, find man;! read-
or ability to believe is bestowed upon man, and that            ers.                         :
then, after he has received the power of `faith,, man is                It is striking that most of the book is devoted Dr:
`able by, the exercise -of his own free will to consent Huizenga's preparation for the foreign field, and only
to the terms of salvation and to ,actually believe in           a comparatively small part to his actual missionary
Christ. On the contrary, both the power of faith and            labors, in China. This, although it is a fact that Dr;
                                `_    `                                                                                  .-
                                                                                                            I


                                                                                    -%





                                ;
       296.                     '                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D .   BE.ARER   ..                                             .
I





       Huizenga did devote an uncommonly large share of                                           Een waardig bijdrage tot de verklaring der Heilige
       his life to preparatory work;. as we happen to know Schrift.
      from personal ,experience, is, nevertheless; a weakness 1                                   Hartelijkxaanbevolen.
       of the book.                  :                                                                                                            H .   H .
                                                                                   H. H.  '                               .'
                     -.                                     I                                                                   *  * *
                                           ,*  * :#                                                                                                ,>
                                                                                               DIeuterotiomium  I,  door Dr. J. Ridderbos. Uitgever,
     Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Exodus- --                                              J. H. Kok, N.V. Kampen, Nederland: Prijs f. 4.25.
          ---Deuteronomy ; Zondervan Publ. House, Grand
               Rapids,  Mich. Price per vol. $3.95. Two volumes.                                  Deze verklaring van hetboek Deuteronomium komt
                                                                                               voor in de serie "Korte Verklaring derHeilige Schrift".
           What we remarked about the volumes- of Lange's                                      In een inleiding behandelt de schrijver o.m., ook bet
      icommentary  already published by the Zondervan Pub-                                     critische vraagstuk aangaande het auteurschap en den
      lishing House, holds good for the volumes we are now                                     oorsprong van het boek. Van belang is hetgeen Dr.
     reviewing and  retiommending to our readers. It is a                                      Ridderbos schrijft, mede in de inleiding, over het ver-
      scholarly and conservative ~commentary,  characterized,                                  bond, zegen en vloek of wraak des verbonds.
      on the whole by *sound exegesis and `honest. dealings                                       De verklaring zelf. is duidelijk en in glashelderen
      with the text. The wo,rk  is enriched by many notes.                                     stijl geschreven. Hier en daar hadden we gaarne ken
           It is, of course, impossible, in reviewing a work                                   beetje breedere verklaring gezien.
      of this matterj to offer a detailed criticism. It is but                                    Dit eerste deel  bevat de verklaring op de  eerste-
      natural that> in an exegetical work such as this, we                                     zestien hoofdstukken van Deuteronomium.
      find some views expressed with which I cannot agree.
      As an illustration, I may refer to Lange's explanation                                      Van harte aanbevolen bij onze Hollandsche lezers.
      of the.passage  through the Red Sea (Exodus, p. 28),                                                                                               H. H.
      an interpretation which, -however, is criticized! in a                                                                    `* *.  *
      note.        .;'     1                           v
           But this does not in the least detract from my ex-                                  De  Dordtsde  Leerrege@n,   door Ds. J. G.  Feenstra   ;
     .' pression  of `high regard for this scholarly `work.
                                     D                                                                  tweede druk. Uitgever J .H. Kok, Kampen, Neder-
                                                                                 H .   H .              land. Prijs f. 4.50.                ('
                                                       * *            :I:                         Deze Gereformeerde verklaring van de Vijf Artike-
                                                                                               len Tegen. de Remonstranten door iemand, die qnze
                                                                                               gereformeerde belijdenisschriften blijkbaar grondig
      Het  B?elE  L,eviticus,  door  Prof. Dr. W. H.  (Gispen.                                 kent en liefheeft,  bevelen we van harte  aan bij  ens
         Uitgever J. H. Kok, N.V. Kampen,.  Nederland..                                        Hollandsch lezend publiek.
               401 paginas.. Prijs f. 15.25.                                                      In een inleidend woord biedt Ds. Feenstra o.m. ook
           Dit is, m.i., 
                                     een". zeer degelijk en grondig  uitge-                    een critiek op de bestrijding van de Dordtsche Leer-
      werkte, zoowel als conservatieve  commentaar op het                                      regelen en de predestinatie door de .dialectische  theo-
       bock.  L e v i t i c u s .   :.                                                         l o g i e .
           In een inleiding verdedigt de schrijver het.  oor-                                     We hadden gaarne een breedere v&klaring+ gezien
       spronkelijk auteurschap `van Moses, ofschoon daarmee van de verwerping der `dwalingen.                                                            =
      de kwestie, wie de eind-redactor van het boek is ge-                                                                 _                             H. H.
                                                                                                          ,
      weest, nbg !niet is opgelost. De voornaamste beteeke-
     . . nis van bet' boek Leviticus vindt de schrijver hierin,
       dat,i "het predikt ons, Christenen, de wgjze, waarop
       de zonde wordt bestredenin Israel door `de God van                                                      d                NOTICE . .
       Israel, door zijn instellingen (het offer, de reinigingen ;
       de  sociale zonde door  bet sabbat- en jubeljaren; de                                     The Board of the Protestant Reformed Christian
       s-exuele zonder door de wetten van kuisheid) , door zijn                                School of  <Grand  R-apids  "Adams  ;St.",  is in need of
      belofte en bedrieging etc. En in deze' bestrijding van teach.ers for the  2nd, 3rd and 8th grades. The need
       de zonde predikt het ons Christus: het zoen-en rkini-                                   is urgent.            0
       gingsmiddel, de grote Priester, Profeet,  en Leeraar, de                                  Please address-your application to:
      , Koning, die ons door Zijn  veror.deningen  regeert."
                                                . .                                                                 Educational Committee .
       p; 27.                                                    -                                                  Protestant Reformed Chr. School
           Interessant is wat Dr. Gispen schrijft over de ziekte                                                    1`15'6 Adams St., S. E. - .
     van melaatschheid op pp. 39%203,.                                                             \                .Grand Rapids 7, Michigan,
                                          .'


                                      TH  Et  ,STANDA,RD   B E A R E R                                               297

        The Issue Clearly" &aim                                cept the theory of an offer of salvation, and have pro-
                                                               claimed that. the gospel is not only. a savour of life unto
                                                               life but also of death unto death, and this according to
     Prof. K. Schilder has drawn the. issue- very clearly      the good pleasure of the Lord. Hence, the gospel is
  in,his recent articles,in  the Reformatie on the D&i&%-      never grace to all the hearers. But, applying the' truth
 tion which has been approved by Ci&sis East and re-           of God's sovereignly particular grace consistently, we
 jetted by Classis West. The undersigned does not in- have also proclaimed that the same. must apply to the
 tend to discuss these articles. This rests in the cap-        sacraments. This explains why we have rejected the
- able hands of the editor of the Standard Bearer. How;        Heynsi~n error of a general promise (this is the main
 ever, we do wish to write a few lines in connection           tenet of Heynsianism, not that of a preparatory, sub?
 with the fact that the issue has been clearly drawn.          jective grace). We have indeed maintained the truth
     Professor Schilder is not merely opposed to the           that Divine election is the heart and, core of the Church
 Declaration. He is also opposed to the binding de-            of God. Twenty-seven years ago .we preferred expul-
 cision of our classicai meeting of October, 1950. He          sion from the Churches wherein we formerly had a
 does not acknowledge any  diff,erences between the            name and a place, rather than .deny what we believed
 Liberated Churches and our churches and suggests              to be the truth according to the Word of*aGod  and our
that all so-called differences are merely doctrinal and        Confessions; If twenty-seven `years ago we had been
 dogmatical opinions of  individua1.s.  Hence, he advo-        confronted with the Declaration as a statement of that
 cates that nothing binding be laid before liberated           which we believed. to be the truth of Scripture and the _
 immigrants when they seek admittance into the fellow-         Confessions, not one among us would have hesitated.
 ship of our churches. If we maintain the Declaration Let us recall these days and analyze anew the struggle
 and also the binding decision of the October classis          which gave birth to our Protestant Reformed churches.
  (the professor very correctly identifies the two), so the       Today we are called'to  work among the immigrants
 professor continues, our churches will commit hari-           in Canada. Professor Schilder has clearly drawn the
 kari, ecclesiastical suicide. The undersigned, however,       line. And permit me to add: also the immigrants. in
 is of the conviction that, if we do not maintain them,        Canada have clearly drawn the line. First, one listens              .
 we commit hari-kari..                                         in vain among them for emphasis upon the truths of
   , Permit me to begin with this lquestion : A.re we and God's election and reprobation (except those-very few
 must we  ,remain distinctively-` Protestant Reformed?         who came to Canada some four or .five years ago, but
 The professor denies this: The immigrants in Canada           refused to take a stand for our Protestant `Reformed
 deny this. Do we have a distinctively Protestant Re-          Churches when it involved them in taking a stand over -:
 formed calling? And, if we have such a distinctively          against Liberated immigrants). The doctrine of elec-
 Protestant Reformed calling, how must we maintain it,         tion is mentioned with great hesitation' and that of
 and this particularly over against those who deny this? reprobation .is completely silenced. .The . theory of a
 Have we been following Rev. Hoeksema merely as a              general promise is generally advocated. And, accord-
 man, and have we merely been `following his personal          ing to these immigrants, this means that <God does-not
 opinions through all these years, since 1924? #Or, has        baptize a child in His wrath but in His favor, that
 it been our conviction that he has been and is being          the sacrament of baptism is for every child a token of
 used by God to reveal unto us the beauty of the Scrip-        Divine grace, mercy, and love. Besides, they wish to
' tures and of the Reformed truth? Let  LI;,  in these         join our churches as liberated, do not wish to be bound
 momentous days, take inventory, recall the past,. and         to any binding decision. This is true throughout Can-
 analyze the struggle which we have fought as Pro-             ada. This was clearly evinced at our classical meet-.
 testant Reformed Churches. I appeal to our people,            ings which were held last October, January, and Feb-
 in ,Classis  East and in Classis West, to ask themselves      ruary.    I challenge. anyone to prove the contrary.
 the question: Why were we cast out of the Christian           They intend to retain the liberty to maintain and
 Reformed Church and what have we been maintaining             propagate their own views as members of our Pro-
 all these *years? Have we not been privileged by the          testant Reformed Churches. And in this they are fully
 Lord to champion the truth that the grace of God. is          supported out of the Netherlands.
 sovereignly particular, that it is particular according          Indeed, the issue is clearly drawn. First, let no
 to the sovereign pleasure and will of the Lord. To say man say (as has been rumoured)  that the undersigned
 that, the grace of God is particular is not peculiarly        is responsible, either wholly-or in part, for the collapse
 reformed ; to say that it is sov,ereignlg particular is       of our Protestant Reformed church in Hamilton. If I
 .reformed.  And because we believe that the grace of          am responsible, `for Hamilton's debacle, then every            '
 God (there is only one grace) is sovereignly particular,      minister and elder who were delegated to our October,
 we have applied this truth consistently all along'the         1950  classis must share equally this responsibility.
 line. It is for this reason that we have*refused  to ac-      Hamilton's Liberated left us, ?zot because of the De-


         2          9          8                 T     H      E           STA,NDARD  BEARER

      t .' clarution, but because of the bi?zo?ing clecisibn, o&ginal-     Are we ready to give LIP our heritage, to renounce our
        ly adopted by the consistory last June 5, and enforced             di&inctiveness?  Are we ready to permit the &f&a-
        by the Pctober  classis. Every delegate at that October tion into our churches of a conception the rejection
        classis, excepting one delegate from our congregation              whereof constitutes the very. origin and heart and
        of Chatham,  voted to maintain this binding decision.              cause and right of our existence? What is to be our
        All I did in Hamilton was merely to enforce it.            This    answ,er in these momentous days of decision? And
        is the reason for Hamilton's collapse. Hence, eyery                let us not make'the mistake in the attempt to show
        minister'and elder of classis East; who voted to main-             that these immigrants are reformed, calvinistic, and
        tain this binding decision, must share equal responsi-             biblical and as such sho@$be  welcome into our fellow-
        bility with me. `And, this also emphasizes the point               ship by quoting many things from their leaders with
        that Hamilton's suspension and virtual deposition .of              which we can and must agree. The undersigned re-
        the undersigned was a suspension and deposition of                 peats what he has said and written in .the past: a
        every Protestant Reformed minister of our churches.                preacher or writer must be judged, not in the light of
         Secondly,  I must refute the theory that Hamilton's               the reformed things he speaks br writes, but in the
       -' debacle must be regarded as a local affair. Anyone light of the things which are contrary to the reformed
        who reads the Reformatie and has been following the                truth. Do we recall our own struggle of the last twenty
        articles of Prof. Schilder on the Declaration will realize `seven years? Do we recall how the leaders and preach-
        the absurdity of. this theory. Permit me to emphasize :            ers of the Christian Reformed Church declared agree-
        I was  suspended  as a  Protesta&  R!eformed minister              ment with the truths of election and reprobation, par-
       -by the people of our church of Hamijton as Lkerated.               ticular atonement, efficacy and irresistible character of
        At no time did anything personal ever enter into the               the grace of God? Let us then please bear in mind:
        matter of my suspension. To quote the official decision            these immigrants teach a conception of the promise
        of the consistory at its meeting.of January 12, 1951, 3            which we have been rejecting ever since 1924. And,
        was suspended because I,refused to submit to the basis -they insist on the liberty to continue to maintain this
        as aui8ecl by the con&story. This basis was the rejec-             c&ceptiofi and spread it in our churches. .Prof.   Schil-
        tion of the binding decision which -was enforced by the            der may insist that we, to reveal ourselves as a church
        classis of October, 1950. It was simply a case of a                of Jesus Christ, should receive them into our fellow
        congregation and cons&tory  which had called me .and               ship. We, however, reiterate that to do so would be
        promised to bind themselves to me (as a Protestant                 to commit. hari-kari. This would be suicide for our
        Reformed minister),' later violated its  pro&se, and               Protestant- Reformed Cause. Much has been written
                                                                                                    _:
        disposed of me without one word of appreciation for                to shoy why, we can best serve our churches by adopt-
        me or our churches, and demanded that I bind inyself               ing the Declaration. I conclude with this question:
        to them. This is the record. Havipg accept$d the call              Will someone please show us-how we can best serve
        to Hamilton because I believed that the Lord  laid it              our churches by not adopting it? Because, as far as
I     - upon me, and with the desire and resolve to serve our the undersigned is concerned, my one -concern is the
        Protestant Reformed churches, the undersigned won-                 churches whom I love and am privileged to serve.
        ders not a little why the opponents of the Declaration                                                              ,       -- H. Veldman.
        never refer to my suspension-in any of their writings.
        To accept the chill to Hamilton was difficult. `To be
        treated like scum atid offscouring by the congregation                           `_
        of Hamilton was worse. But, to wonder whether I
        have the backing and support of our churches is surely                                              IN  MEMORIAM
        the motit' difficult of all.
              1. repeat: the issue is clearly drawn. Are we to               The  Mission   Committee   extends   its  sincere   sympathy   to  the
        remain P,rotestant  Reformed? I wish to ask Rev. De                bereaved   family  of  its  former  member
        Jong and Rev. Petter, and possibly others, the ques-                                   .          Mr.  Henry  Lotterm'an
        tion :- "Do we have a distinctively Protestant Reformed            whom   the  Lord  suddenly   took   from  active  service  in  the  church'
        calling? Must  we maintain that calling? Apd how                   militant  to  the  church   triumphant  on  February   16,  19bl.
        must we maintain that calling when we labor among                    As  member  of  the  Mission   Committee   he  served   our  churches
        people tiho deny that calling? How can we best labor               faithfully for the past several  yea&
        among. them and preserve our distinctiveness ?" A&
        we and must we remain Protestant ,Reformed?  . If we                 May   the  King  of  His  Church   comfqt  the  bereaved   relatives
        abolish all binding, permit people to join our churches            with  His  grace   and  Spirit.
        who maintain their own conception of the general pro-                                                   The   Mission   Committee:          _
        mise, we will grow. We will .grow numerically. But, u,e                                                         R.  Veldman,   President
        `shall cease to @xi& as Protestant  .Ji?efoiwwd Chwrchek                                                        ,C.  Hanks,   Secretary.
                                                                             -,.t  1,


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   "                                     299

                                                               never be able to fathom it, yet a child can grasp it
           OyR.  DOCTRINl$                                     and a child can be told the Scriptural story of the
                                                               creation of the world. We should never make matters
                                                               intricate and involved which are obviously simple and
                Days or  Perjods                               clear. And this, surely applies to this vain attempt to
                                              ,                explain the Divine origin of the world. Surely, it
                                                               must be clear to anyone who `will read Genesis 1 that
                            I.                                 the Scriptures there present to us an historical narra-
VARIOUS  ,ATTEMPT,S  TO "HARMONIZE" THE                        tive of the work of creation in time. And this is cer-
                                                               tainly abundantly sustained.by  Holy Writ, as in: "For
SCRIPTURAL  ACCCUNT OF  ,CREATIOaN WITH                        in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
         THE  "FJNDINGS OF SCIENCE".                           and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
The ideal or allegorical interpretation.                       wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hal-.
                                                               lowed it"-Exodus 20 :ll ; "Thou, even Thou, are Lord
   This theory of the account of creation is called the        alone ; Thou .hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens,
"ideal" because it maintains the idea if not the histori-      with all their host, the earth, and all things that are
cal narrative of creation according to Holy Writ.              therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and Thou
Genesis 1 is not a historical description of the work          preservest them all; and the host of heaven worship-
of creation but a poetical setting forth of this creative      peth Thee"-Nehemiah 9 :6 ; `(Great is the Lord, and
work of the Lord. The six days of creation must not            greatly to be praised ; and His greatness is unsesrch-
be regarded as chronological periods of time of longer         able. One generation- shall praise Thy works to an-
or shorter duration, but merely different viewpoints           other, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. I will, speak
from which the created world is repeatedly viewed in           of the glorious, honor of Thy majesty, and of Thy
order that we might + gain a clearer picture of this wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might
mighty work of the living God. The six days of .crea-          of Thy terrible acts : and I will -declare Thy great-        '
tion, according to Genesis, are not to be regarded as          ness"-Psalm 145 13-6. Secondly, if Genesis 1 and `2
really occurring successively, but they merely present         must not be regarded as an historical narrative, what
to us the causal connection between the various crea-          about-the chapters that follow in this book of Genesis?
tures, the logical (not temporal) order of the different Surely, Genesis 3, etc., follows historically upon the
creatures, and also describe to us how the angels, suc-        first two chapters. If Gen. 1 and 2 are not historical,
cessively, gained knowledge of the Divine work of erea-        the rest of the chapters of this book `may not be his-
tion. - What this means is not difficult to understand.        torical either; and what, then, we ask, is historical?
Although it is true, then, that all things were .created
at once, this does not necessarily mean that the various       -The mythical theory of creation.
things, are not connected and related. Hence, this                This theory does not merely reject the historical
logical order of the various creatures is held before us       narrative of creation as revealed in the Scriptures, but
in the Scriptural account of creation-the' six days            also the idea as' such of creation, and regards the
do not present to us a temporal order of events, but           record of' Genesis 1 as merely a myth, a legend, a piece
merely a logical order, the causal connection between          of fiction, embodying a religious lesson. The things
all the different works of God's hands. Neither must           themselves, as recorded in the first book of Moses, are
he b.elieve,  so it is said, that the angels always enjoyed    not necessarily real;  ,Scripture simply speaks as it        -
a complete knowledge-of the creative work of the Lord.         does figuratively; When we read, e.g., that the Lord
They gradually attained unto this knowledge. And               made coats of skins for Adam and Eve, this does not               s
this gradual attainment unto this knowledge by `the            mean that He actually did that, but merely that He
angels is described unto us in the Scriptural account          somehow. clothed them. Some go so far as to deny
of creation.                                                   that we,-have any history in Genesis 1 but exclusively
   *However, over against this ideal presentation of           a myth, a legend. `The Scriptural narrative simply
the work of creation we may lodge serious objections.          tells us how certain writers conceived of the first
First, is it not amazing that the foolish and vain philo-      dwelling-place of man, and how they conceived of the
sophy of this world will go to such great length to            entrance of sin into the world. History we do not
make  diffic'ult  an historical account which is so ob-        have here. IOthers did not wish to proceed to such
viously clear and simple. One may not understand extremes, maintained that Genesis does not give us an
this work of the Lord or fathom the Divine origin of           historical account, but declared that the `presentation
all things. This lies in the nature of the case. But           of this account is mythical. It is true, then, that that.
the narrative as set forth before us in Genesis is surely which is recorded in Gensis 1 is historical, but we do
so clear and plain that, although the finite mind will         not know whether the things actually occurred as nar-


300                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   . . B E A R E R

rated in'the first book of Moses. The first chapters          of Egypt, Mount Sinai, the Rock,. the `Manna, Christ,
of Genesis, it is asserted, do tell us of the original        etc. To proceed from the assumption that Scripture
state of rectitude; of man as he was. put to the test         reveals these matters to us in figurative language is
by `the Lord, of the entrance of the devil to tempt           surely a very arbitrary approach to Holy Writ, and
man, of a falling in sin and the subsequent driving           simply deprives us of whatever certainty one may pos-.
out of man by the living God. That is the history; the sess with respect to .the one and only book of Divinely
facts, which are recorded in Holy Writ. But this does infallible inspiration. We do well to hold to the literal
not imply that these facts actually occurred as revealed      and natural interpretation of Holy Writ unless the
to us in Holy Writ. We do not know whether' there             Scriptures themselves inform  us  that the interpreta-
was actually a garden of Eden, or whether there was           tion must be based upon a figurative explanation of
actually a tree of life or a tree of knowledge of good        the text. For example, we are told in the Word of
and ..evil.  :in that garden, whether there was actually a    God that the heavenly Jerusalem has golden' streets,
serpent in Paradise and whether that .serpent actually but we are also informed that the heavenly-and eternal
spoke. Scripture simply reveals to us these historical        realization of God's covenant and salvation is such
factsin figurative language. Even as we cannot form that human heart could never conceive of it, and that
.an. idea, conceive of the heavenly things as they shall      it could never enter into the heart and mind of man,
,be, so also ,we cannot conceive of the things as they        and also that flesh and blood can never enter into the
once, were  :in the original state of righteousness. And      Kingdom of Heaven. B,esides,  is it not true, that as
just as the $criptures describe to. LIS these heavenly far as the heavenly renewal of all things is concerned,
realities in :terms which are adapted to our present          we expect exactly  heavenly things,  and heavenly things
earthly life, so also the Scriptures describe the things      are surely different than the things earthly; but, as
as they were in paradise in terms which are adapted           far as the earthly Paradise is concerned, we deal with
to our present life and thinking. There was a tree in         earthly things. Because we are earthly we cannot
Paradise but `we do not know what kind of a tree it           form .a conception of that which once shall be in hea-
was ; there-was a temptation but we -do not know how          venly glory, and the heavenly renewal of all things
that, temptation actually occurred. 1 Besides, it is said;    must be described to us in terms adapted to our earthly
what difference does it really make? The important            life. and thinking; but, also because we are earthly, we
thing is that we grasp, th.e higher reality which is re-      can form a conception of the things as they once were
vealed to us in figurative language. All we need do is        in the earthly Paradise. Scripture's account of crea-
believe that the  ,man was originally.` righteous, that he tion must stand as recorded in Holy Writ. If we do
lived in fellowship.,with  the Lord, that he was tempted      or cannot believe the account in Holy Writ, what, then,
and fell into sin. .The rest-is merely incidental. (See       shall we believe?       .--  `.
Volume V, page 205, of the Standard Bearer).
       In this connection we- may. also call att,ention to    T-he restitution theory.
the fact that some- years ago .a certain Dr. *Geelkerken         .This conception would make separation between
in the Netherlands denied the historical and objective        Gen. 1:l and Gen. 1:2, and assumes that a long period
reality with' respect to the tree. of life and the tree of    of. time elapsed b,etween the creation of the heavens
knowledge of good and of evil, the serpent, the seed:of       and the earth as recorded in verse. 1 and the so-called
the serpent, maintaining that these were not historical-      secondary creation:as  described-in the following verses.
ly real but simply Scriptme's  way of*teaching  us .cer-      The Hexaemeron, or creation-week, Begins really with
tain truths.                                                  verse 3, describes' only the restoration and preparation
       Against this presentation of ,the':$cr~ptural  account of the earth for.man. This restitution theory, there-
of creation we may lodge all the qbjections  which we         fore, ascribes a long period of time to the chaos of
lodged against. the id,eal or allegorical' theory.' When verse 2 and attempts to explain in the light of that
the: Word of the `Lord ,speaks of the heavenly Jeru-          chaos all the `different phenomena which the science '
salem and of that city's golden streets, everyone knows       of geology presents to  us: Geology is that science
that the language is figurative. On the other. hand,          which deals with the structure of the crust of the globe
it is equally clear that Scripture's account of the crea-     and all the substances which compose it. The geologist
ti.on of the world ,as set forth in the book of Genesis       digs into the earth and. comes up with all kinds ,of
must beviewed  as an historical account of the'work of        "scientific findings". This- long period of- time `was
c r e a t i o n .
              . Besides, against his .mythical theory, we     characterized by several catastrophic changes, which
wouid repeat: If these things  of. Genesis 1 are not          resulted in the destruction described by the words
real, what .then, is real? Who, then, will determine          `"waste and void". `They would read verse 2: And the
what is. true or fictional and legendary? The same            earth became waste and void. And then, out of this
thing could then jalso be said of .many other things chaos, God created a habitable world for man. In fact,
in Holy .Writ, such as': Israel, Israel's deliverance out     some .even declare that the earth was originally' in-


                               .~
                                        YIXE   STANDARD   BEA~E.R-                                                             301

 habited by the. angels, and that the fall in' the angelic              together with all that they contain, then the first day
 world caused the chaos whereof we read in verse 2.                     surely becomes a very unusual and extraordinary day,
        This restitution theory, however, is pure philosophy            inasmuch as it began with the first moment of creation
 and is not acquired from a careful and, honest reading                 and then was  dark_ for some  time,       However, Dr.
 of the Holy Scriptures. Fact is, the `Word%of  God tells               Bavinck also declares that the exegesis of Genesis 1 is
us that God created the heavens and the earth "and all                  possible which `regards also the six ,days as periods.
 that in them is" in six xdays-Gen. 2 : 1, Ex.' 20 : 11.                But to this we will call attention,. the Lord willing, in
                                                                        our subsequent article. .
 The conco&stic theory.                               `..                                                       H. Veldman.
        This theory of the creation of the world maintains
 that the days of creation were periods of time, periods
 of thousands of years. To this theory we will now call
 attention somewhat in detail.
   \                                                                         Vain Repetitions. in Prayer _.
   -          THE   CONCORD&TIC   TBEORY
 .Defencled by Dr.. El. Ba~inck.                                            Let us turn to Matthew 6, verses 7 and 8, and read
                                                                        here the word of God as follows : "But when ye pray,
        This concordistic theory of the creation of the uni-            use not vain- repetitions, as the heathen do: for they
 verse has been defended, among, others, by. the late think that they shall be heard of their much speak-
 Dr, H. Bavinck (see his "Reformed Dogmatics,,                          ing. Be  ,not ye therefore like unto them: for your
 478, f.f.)            --            ;. .                    E-. II,
                                                                        Father knoweth what things y& have need of, before
  He declares, in the first place,. that Genesis  1:l                   ye ask him."               ,
 must apparently be regarded as occurring before the                        Christ here instructs His people -not to use vain
 six actual days of creation. IIe affirms that the resti- repetitions in- prayer. .The original text uses a word
 tution theory with respect to the fall of the angels and that means to, repeat the same thing over and over;
 the resultant chaos of the earth (without form and to use many idle words ; to babble,. prate. aGod's people
 void) is fallacious and does not rest upon anything                    must not fall into this. error in prayer,  .as do the
 which canbe read in the Word of `God (see "restitution                 heathen.
 theory" above) : k But, on ,the other hand, h*e also de-                  Yet it would be wrong to conclude that Christ here
 clares that the creation of the heavens and the earth,                 lays -His people `under a law forbidding long prayers.
 the-chaotic condition of the earth (without form and                   Lengthy prayers. are' not as such distasteful to God.
 void) ,. cannot be placed upon the first day, declaring                `Christ's very'own practice while He walked-among us*
 that the first day was not formed by the original .dark-. on this ,earth forbids this view. The Savior would
 ness and the subsequently created light, but' by the                   spend whole nights in prayer  in'the mountain apart.
 first exchange of light and darkness. The darkness of                  And so Christ's followers, too, must pray without
 verse 2, he continues, was not the first evening, but                  ceasing, cry unto `God day and night, which they do
 only after the light was cr,eated  did it become evening               in their afflictions. And we have Christ's own word
 and then morning. And the morning concluded the for it that God shall. speedily avenge His elect who
 first day, which had begun with the creation of light.                 cry day' and night unto Him, though  He bear long
 The late professor also declares that, even if we;wished' with them. Nor does this Scripture passage teach
 to regard Gen. 1:l and 2 as occurring on the first day,                that it is as such wrong to repeat a phrase or sentence
 because of what we read in Ex: 20 :11 and 31:17, this                  in prayer. Every one of the twenty-six verses of
 first day would be a very unusual and extraordinary                    Psalm 136 closes with the exultant cry: "For His
 day, which began with the first moment of creation                     mercy endureth forever."
 and then was .dark for some time. This reasoning of                       Finally, it also would `be a `mistake to conclude
 the professor, therefore, proceeds upon the basis that                 from thisbit of instruction that it is wrong in God's
 the six days, wher,eof  we read in Genesis 1, were char- sight to petition Him for the same things all the while.
 acterized by the fact that it was evening and morning,                 Let  us  consider that there is but one bread of life-  %
 and therefore by the exchange of light and darkness.                   the Lord Jesus ; but one grace-His grace ; but one
 However, verse 1 cannot refer to the first of these six                Spirit-the Spirit of Christ; but one kingdom-His
 days for the simple reason that there was no exchange. heavenly kingdom ; and but one will-the will of the
 of light and darkness, that darkness covered the/face' Father. And upon these things-the things promised
 of the deep, and that light was created on the first of                -$he things above-true prayer is, always and ex- .
the six days. Hence, if we `wish to accept the testi-                   elusively concentrated.
mony of Ex.  2O:ll and  31:17 in the  sens.e  that the                     It is the vain repetitions, in prayer against which
Lord created the heavens and the earth in six days,                     Christ cautions His people, the babbling, the prating


                    .




302                                            T-H`k  S T A N D A R D   BE'ARE-R                               -.
in prayer. Now it is true, to be sure, that when a                 antics thus bespoke a terrible effort to induce Baa1 to
man prays thoughtlessly without his mind focussed                  give answer. For they were directing their entreaties
on His prayer, he must be said to babble, however                  to an idol.. . Think on what they had done with God.
sound his prayer may be in a doctrinal point of view;              They had changed His glory into an image made like
or when he prays without any regard to the sense and               to corruptible man.' They had, in a word, drawn -God
meaning of the words that he,utters,  he babbles J or,             down to the level of the creature, of a man, with all
when ,he repeats the same things merely to draw out                the vile passions, weaknesses and limitations of a man.
his prayer to a length dictated  .by custom. A man cer-            And Baa1 was that man. Hence, as the prophet Elijah
tainly must be said to babble in prayer when through               mockingly suggests, Baa1 might be pre-occupied in his
prayer he seeks forbidden, things, the things on earth,            sbirit so as not to be hearing them. -Or he might be
and accordingly is' activated in his prayer by a carnal            on a chase or on a journey. Or it might-be that he
motive; or when he prays for the things ,heavenly- was  asl,eep so that he had to be awakened. Or he
such as grace-but with a double heart, that, is, with might be decided not to yield to their entreaties, so
his affection set on the bread. that perishes and not              that his mind had to be changed by their persistent
.on the heavenly gift. That man wavers. He is double-              cries. It might be, too, that he was undecided so that
minded. He is like a wave of the sea driven with the               his mind had to be made up for him,by their persistent
                                                                                           .
wind and tossed. Let not that man think, says James,               teasing.
that he shall receive anything from the Lord.                         Baa1 `being but a man, these heathen were behaving
       True prayer is so difficult. For to be truly pray-f toward their deity in much the same way that a spoiled
ing is to be. with God in His sanctuary, f ellowshipping           chi1.d will -carry on with regard to weak and doting
with the Father through Christ, as crucifying the                  parents. Such a child makes known its request and
members which are upon the earth and with the whole                receives "no" for an answer. But the child means to
heart set upon -the things of Christ's heavenly king- have its way ; so it takes recourse to teasing. If that
 dom. What man can truly pray?. There is but one                   gets it no r,esults,  it creates a scene. It vexes, harasses
                                                                          1.
who can `pray-and that one `Christ. As the merciful                and plagues until .the parent,, driven to distraction by
highpriest He prays fo? His people, and He! prays' in- its wicked importunities, finally yields.
and through His people by His Spirit.. ,Only as living                So behave the heathen with respect to their gods
members of His-body, grafted in Him by a faith living              who are no gods.. They think that they' shall be heard
and indestructible, because He prays for them, do His              for! their much speaking. Be ye therefore not like
people pray to the Father.                                         unto them. Christ's meaning is clear. Do not ye tease
       But we must be definite. in explaining this Scrip-          your Father. Do not imagine that it is necessary to
%ture passage. We can be, for Christ is definite in His            inform Him, or to attract His attention, or to arouse
 presentation of it. "But when ye pray use not vain -His pity by your cries, Do not think that by vain  '
 repetitions as do the  h,eathen." Let us take notice,             repetitions you can impose your will upon Him, so that
 "as do the heathen". The heathen pray, too. `It is as plagued and-harassed to distraction by your carnal
 not a  .question whether a man  Grays. All men- do.               importunities, He is finally in His weakness induced
 It's a `question to whom a man prays, to the Father or            to yield to you by reason of your teasings and gives
 to an idol. The heathen do the latter.- Accordingly,              you the thing upon which you have your carnal affec-
their prayers are babbling. -`They use vain repetitions:           tion set even against His better knowledge. All such
 A striking example of, such praying is contained in `prayers are a terrible insult to your Father.
 the first book of the Kings, the eighteenth chapter.                  Christ states the reason: "For your Father know-
 Here is described a contest between Elijah, the lone              eth what things ye have need of before you.ask. To
 prophet of God, and the prophets of .Baal, four hun-              clarify this statement fully and completely we must
 dred in number. Who was to be God, Jehovah or Baal. , by all means ,discern  who it is of whom Christ here
 That was the issue. The God who in response to the                speaks. He speaks of the Father, the #God and Father
 prayers of his divotees answered by fire consuming                of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His redeemed, family,
 the sacrifices was to decide. The prophets. of  Baa1              the church of the elect. And consider who this Father
 called on their deity:from  morning until. noon. They             -the Father of this family-is. He is not an idol, but
 said one thing over and over. It was, YO' Baa1 hear               de. is the eternal, the incomprehensible, the infinite
 us". But there was no voice and no answer. They                   and infinitely wise God, whose wisdom is .unsearch-
 became frantic.                 They leaped up and down before    able, and whose ways are past finding out, the holy
 their altar, cried aloud and cut themselves with knives           and the righteous God who dwelleth in a light unto
 and lance&  till the blood flowed out upon them.                  which no man can approach ; the Almighty God, who
       Christ gives `us the explanation of these stra;ge           measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, meted
 and dreadful capers. These Baa1 -priests thought that             out the heavens with a sPan, comprehended the dust
 they should be heard for `their much speaking. Their              of the earth with a measure, and weighed the moun- j
                         ..--
-                                 --


                                                                                              0
                                  .THE  STANDAR.D-  B E A R E R                                                        -303

tains in scales and the hills in a balance and before      and death, and from thine adversaries, that revile you,
whom all the nations are nothing, the great God, who       and persecute you and say. all manner of evil against
dbeth all His good pleasure and worketh all things         you, falsely, for My sake. I have delivered thee and
according to the dounsel of His will.    '     *           at the last day I will raise thee up and clothe thee
    And consider who these children are. `They are         with heavenly perfection and glory. And thou hast
the.children  of This Father who is God and none else,     need to praise Me, thy God, and exultantly to exclaims
the object of His eternal love, chosen by Him before       that mine is the kingdom and'the power and the glory
the foundation of the world, that they should be holy      forever. For thou art My child.                        \
and without'blame before Him in- love; predestinated          Having thus learned from the Father our needs,
by Him unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ       we as His redeemed children .pray to the Father in the
to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will     full assurance of faith:
and to, the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein         `{Olur Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be th.y
`He made these children of His, by nature dead in their    name.      Thy kingdom come.            Thy will be done in
trespasses and sins, accepted in the beloved. And how      heaven in heaven so on earth. ,Give us this day our
the Father loved these children. He has them en-           daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we
graved in the palms of His hand so that they.are ever      forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not
before Him. He laid all the sins of His children upon      into temptation. But deliver, us from- all evil. For
His only begotten Son, Christ J,esus,  and wounded Him thine in the kingdom and the power and the glory,
for their transgressions ; and then raised Him up          forever. Amen."
from the dead on account of their justification, and                                                   G. M. -0phoff.  -
set Hi-m, the Christ, with all His people in heaven,
where He blessed them,with all spiritual blessings.
    0,' the unutterable foolishness therefore of these
children' teasing their Father, like so many spoiled
children, harassing-Him by their carnal importunities                        Contribution                                      =
to get Him to do theiT will. How' unutterably wicked !
What an insult to the Father. For our Father know-         Dear Editor
eth what things we, His children, have `need of. To           A little space in your paper, please?
be sure,. He knows, being what He is, the only true           "Rev. Howerzyl  votes in favor of the Declaration"
God, whom to know is life everlasting. He knows be-        (?-H.V.P.)            ~       -
cause, being God and not a man, He sovereignly de-
termined all the needs of His children in His mercy           That was a `beautiful article, from the pen of Rev.
and wisdom, and because, according to this wise and        Howersyl,  in re, `"The Radio Preaching in the midst
good and'loving and sovereign determination, He cre-       of t.he field of .the Arminian Faith ; `and the results :
ated all our needs. And being God, He supplied Him-        as he expressesit in the article in the Standard Bearer
self with all the things necessary for the fulfillment     of March 15, last.
of the needs of His children. And in His love of His          That is iust what-we as churches we.re in Need of;
children He is eternally and thus unchangeably de-         and this article, (if anything) should prove to all those
cided to give us the things `we need and none other.       who voted against the Declaration, that they have
    And therefore, if we are truly  His- children, we sorely erred,' although they meant well when they
will consider that He knows what things we have need       did so.
of, not we. And as so considering, we will go to the          To maintain that we do not need the declaration,
Father and say: "Father discover to me my needs." is one thing; but to plove that we as churches should
And He will answer that prayer through His Scrip-          not. adopt it,. is quite a different matter. Up to the
tures as applied to our hearts by Christ's Spirit. He      present date, such proof is still lacking, and sorely so.
will say: My child, thou needest Me, who am thy re-           `The article ii1 the Standard Bearer proves: that we
ward, exceeding Great.     Thou hast need that my          as churches .must maintain our clistir@iv:eness of Doc-
heavenly kingdom come ; for I have created in thee k%ne ,and that only in that way can we expect a bless-
the need of my. kingdom., Thou hast need that my           ing from God. God's Word is still : `The pewter of God
will be done, not thine. Thouhast need that My name        u&o salvation, correction, rebuke, inst~ruction, and fin-
be hallowed, for thou lovest Me in the love that I pour    ally to the glory of God our Savior. Then, and then
out in thine heart. Yes, and thou hast need of thy         only, can we expect God's richest blessing ; when this
daily bread. I will give it thee. And thou `hast need      is preached in all its. purity, and then only do we have
of My forgiveness. I have forgiven thee, in Christ.        comfort in life and in death: God's promise'is sure!
And thou hast need to be delivered from all evil, `from       We, as churches, and  th.e Liberated, do  not  at-'
the power of Satan, and from all thy. guilt .and sin       present belong together. We must first settle our dif-
                                                                                                            .


3 0 4                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   "

ferences `as ,to what God's W&d and the Reformed             states that the undersigned expressed hiniself in favor
Confessions teach', before we can- agree in `One faith ;     of adopting `"this Declaration,,' (italics` mine, AC.).
,One hope ; and ,One baptism'. But .that shall never be      Which means that we actually expressed, on the flodr
reached by letting down the bars of our distinctive-         of Syndd, that we favored the Decla?ation  QS sue have
ness and calling wherewith we are called by ~God.            it today in its present form. Rev, Ophoif merely states
   It is only God's Word; the truth! That is the dyna- that we pleaded for "`exadly such as thing as "The De-
mite which can convert the man's heart from his sinful       claration,' " (italics ming, A.C.) i Hence, according to .
sentimental notions of Arminianism, Pelagianism and Rev. Ophoff, .we did not plead for this Declaration,
what have you, and turfi him to praise the Living God,       but for something l&e it.
to.adore Him only as hi$ Savior; We can preaeh.until            Let us emphasize that the statements of both Rev.
the mountains turn upside down, but we cannot change         Hoeksem and Rev. Ophoff are incorrect. The facts
mai's. he.art and way. olnly God can do so, and this He ace these: Neither Rev. Hofman nor the undersigned
does do,. only with His Word and not with our senti-         ever personally felt the need of a so-called Declaratiori,
mentalism. God's promise is always the yea and amen neither of anything like it.. Neither did Rev. Hofdman
in Jesus Christ.                                             nor the undersigned ever feel the need personally for
   Again: Read that article once more, and  be con-          what the Mission Committee requested of Synod: "a
vinced that to adopt the Declaration of Principles is        form that may' be` used bji those families requesting
an  tibsolute  must  for bur churches. Then, and then        organization into a Prot. Ref. congregation." (Acts
only can  we hope to win  th_e Liberated brethren to         of Synod, 1950, pg. 54). This request of `the Mission
the Truth.                                                   Committee w,as solely the,work of the Committee ; the
                                   PI. A. Van Putten         Mission  Commitfiee  felt the need, n& the Missionaries!
                                   Holland, Michigan.           When the request of the Mission Committee for a
                                                             "form" for congregational organization had been treat-
                       -:-                                   ed by Synod's committee of pre-advice the latter's
                                                             report (Acts l&O, pg. 54) was not favorably received'
               Giving Account                                by sqme brethren. These brethren wanted more. They
                                                             wanted something so clear-cut that none could mistake
                                                             the s&se of it. The document'must be so clear, said
    During recent rnq$hs at least four issues' bf the        a brother delegate, that a particular group (they were
Standard Bearer have referred to the undersigned in          mentioned by name) "know we mean them". What
connection &th what he has said, written or implied          this document was. to' be called no one knew as yet,
with reference to current issues among us, or more           because the desired product had not yet taken form
explicitly: The Declaration of Pri&iples, and our posi-      in the minds of the several delegates. So, whether it
tion over against the so-called "Liberated" brethren.        was to be called. a "binding" or a "`declaration', or a. . .
These references have soniewhat put us in `a rather          something else, no one knew-but some kind of docu-
peculiar (if not questionable) light. For this reason        ment, the  brethr.en'thbught,  was needed.
it might be well for us to give an account of ourselves         After lengthy debate on this matter one of the dele-
in as far as this is necessary.                              gates to Synod suggested t$at they hear the mission-
    First of all, we wish to refer to a, statement of the -aries& Hence, the .only misbionary  present, the under-
editor, the Rev. .H. Hoekcema; in his `editorial ,of Jan-    signed was asked to speak o; the matter. (He had to
uary  15t,h,  iast,,pabe   172,`wher& he offers proof for    be requested to. speak since he had no voice, riot being
the need of the Declaration, stating : "The missionaries     a delegate).         The! undersigned conceded to this re-
`themselves evidently felt the need of it (the. Declara-     quest. In his discussion he pointed to the following:
tion, A.C.) as 5 basis for their labors and for the'or-          1. That `the missionaries felt no need of any such
ganization of churches. At least the Rev. A.  Cam-           document  as far'as they themselves, were concerned. -
menga, who was present at our last Synod, strongly              2. That% he was iather afraid that the need of such
expressed himself in favor of adopting this declara-         a document was born out of a lack of confiderlce  in the
tion."                                                       missionaries. If that were true, which he holjed not,
    Rev. G. M. Ophoff makes a somewhat similar state-        then all the documents in the `world would do no good.
ment in the Standard Bearer, Dec. 15, 1950, page 137,        There must be confidence in the missionaries first
"`Besides, on< our last Synod we. all heard Rev. Cam-        of all.         6
menga plead as many as fifteen minutes for exactly              3: That if the document in discussion was intended
such a'thing as `The De,claration.' "                        t0 clearly set forth thk truth which we as Prot. Ref.
    In connection with these statements we wish .to          Churches preach al1d teach over a.gainst other denomin-
`point to the difference between the testimony of.Rev.       ations in the U. S. and Canada; thus to inform others
Hoeksema and that of Rev. Ophoff. Rev, Hoeksema              how we are distinct frbm those who also boast a Re-


                            .


                                       T H E   Y ' T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       305

  fo&ne"d  heritake,,  then such a dodument should not be *  ;qtiesting organization of  a, new congregation? Do
  dire&ted, against one given group,  but should clearly       the' signatories' to said formal request express whole-
  set forth our peculiar truths in all its phases. Buch a hearted agreement with the @id Declaration, or must
  document  would'definitely be a boon in our  mission- they merely express knowlecLge  of. said Declaration,
  work, and that <for. the following reasons *:                declaring z_oillingness to be instructed according to its *
      a- People have come to.distrust the Prot. Ref. mis-      tenets ?
' siorjaries  astrue representatives of said churches. (Of              What did surprise us at the first reading of said
  late. this has often been felt among the immigrants,         Declaration at the time! of Synod is the fact that it
  arid was once publicly stated at a lecture given on the      was far milder than predicted, for which we were
  covenant by the undersigned in Canada. `The follow- `thankful. We expressed this to Rev. Hoeksema person-
  ing reasons were publicly given : Rev. Hoeksema's hint       a&, after Synod. Why was it milder than expected ?
  of disloyalty in our ranks, Standard Bearer, March 15,       Predictions were that the whole covenant conception
  1950; Rev. ,Ophoff's  hint of disloyalty  in our ranks in    as prevalent'among us should be incorporated I
  his article in regard to Prof. fiolwerda's litter, Stan-              There js &ill another reference in The Standard
  daycL Beare?, August, 1949.                                  Bearer  to  tihich we would like to refer. It appears
      br Ak present we lack "propaganda" material that         in the editorial of Jan. 15th, last, page 196. The editor
  is concise,  clear-cut and with abundant Scriptural          refers  fo a letter  rece&ed   fro& a certain Mr. A. van  -
. proof.            1                                          Qischoven  `(we think this should be: van  Dixhooin),
      This is a brief summary of the.undersigned's  state-     who staies that the nndersigned and Rev. W. Hofman, '
_ ments on  the  flo,or:of   Synod of  1950. However, let      at the time `of the organization of our congregation
  it be borne in mind that all this `was said before the       at Chatham,  ,Ontar@, gave the assurance that : is `Free-
  present Declaration of Pkinciples was composed. Ai           dom of Prophecy' existed," aild that both views (Cove-
  the time of these remarks there was nothing definite         nant views; AX.). could be tolerated in one church con-
  before the bogy of Synod which indicated how or what ,nection." To this Rev.~Hoeksema remarFs, page 19'7,
  --the discussed document might be like. No one knew ..C( . . . .the above paragraph of Mr. van Dischoven is
  what said document was to be like %ntil three days           a reflection on the work of our missionaries ; and it is
later.                                                         u'p to  th%& to contradict him. The churches surely
    il The question might be asked whether tie upder-          have a right to know the truth in this regard." This
  signed spoke on the iresent draft of the Declaration         reflection, we take it, indicates a sort of desertion of
  when it finally reached Synod. The answer is: `"Ab-          the Refor!ned truth, and of' the ,Protestant Reformed
  solutely no!" In fact, when the undersigned asked the        d a m p .
  Synod's chairman whether he might ask a question                      Personally we don't believe .that Rev. Hoeksema       *  ~
 about the present draft, the chairman was very hesi-          means this at all! Has it really come to this after all
 tant in granting such permissio;  ; said he : "`I doubt       these years.? We don't believe it ! Are things so'upset
  whether you have an? voice-in this -matter at all".          amongst us that a man is guilty until he is proven
  When we' assured him that it was a que&on'very  inti-        irinocent? Has the reputation of the undersigned and
  mately related to our mission work, .sinCe the -pro-         his partner, ,the Rev. W. Hofman, fallen to `such an
*. posed do&tie+ stated that this proposed declaration         all-time low that a single le'tter  of the above nature
  shali be used in the meantime 3s "a working hypothesis       requires thein ts give a public account of their being"
                                                                .. .
 for our missidn committee and for our missionaries," faithful or unfaithful to the truth? Ah, brother Hoek-
  he finally granted  us td ask the question. And we did       sema, we `don't even believe that we sho$d discuss
  nothing more than just that.                                 the above letter! Let the undersigned speak just a
      Hence, we stat& again that we `neber  publicly .cx-      personal word: Has he not, brother Hoeksem&,  served
  messed at Synod, nor that we do *so,, now, that the          faithfully with you in the ministry of the Word for.
  fieclaration is just what we need. ' `We contend that        almost twenty-two `years? Did you ever hear that he
  the Mission Committee did not receive in this Declara-       was afraid, or hesitant or failed to speak the'truth as
`lion what they were asking for,`and this can be proven.       he was taught and now preached it with you these               -
  Nor has the undersigned received in this Declaration         many years? He knows you haven't ! Neither shall
  what he claimed would `be h&lpful in our miss& en-           you  ever-  -hear it! Why, then, must an account be
  deavors, as e?pressed  in point 3, above. We contend         given because of just  ol1.e single letter? Did not the
  that for any stranger  the De&ration of/Principles ks        enemy in years p&t speak most horrible things about
  far from clear. It is unfit for mission work.  `. Let        our m&?-yet we never asked for an account, simily
  alone the quest-ion: What is this document, called:          because we loved, lived and labored together in the
  "Declaration': of Principles?" Is it an  infortiative -truth ! As far as is known to us it. is the same today.
 instrument? -.' Or, iS it a ,sig@o?y document ? How           Why, then, must a public account be given ? And` what
  must this document be referred to in any form `ye-           is true of the undersigned we know to be true of the


                                  .


306                                                 T H E &TANDARD                  B E A R E R

Rev. W. Hofman. No, really, we are nBt guil$y until                      iot I, that cast suspicion'on the labors of our mission-
we `are proven innocent-we are iwnocent, our record                      aries. I merely  asked our  m&sionaries  to contradict
bears this oyt, until we-are p?:oven guilty of deserting                 him, and let our churches know the truth in this m-at-
the truth. And should an account  ,be  necessary, we                     ter. What is wropg with this? I still ask them to do
shall only be `too glad to .&ve  the sime, but then only                 this, for we-have tlie right to know. I wilrbe glad to
via our consistory and the Mission Committee. But                        give Mr. van Dixhqorn the lie. In fact, I will openly
we are confident thtit Rev. Hoeksema is also convinced -state here and now, that Mr. Dixhoorn did not writ6
that this is not necessary.                                              the truth, But let the missionaries support this' state-.
  And filially, as long as we are giving account, just                   Tent of niine, instead of turning a statement of Mr.
a brief word in answer to  brother Reitsma's long                        van Dixhoorn against me.
article against what almost seems the undersigned's                                                                               H. H.
duplicity. (Stand&d Bearer, Jan. 1, 1951).
       Brother Reitsma.could have saved himself all this                              \            *     *                *!:`
                                                                                                                             *
writing had  he  interpv'eted  rather than  jnterpolated
our articles in Conmrdia. When we wrote as we did
about the evil conceptions of the immigrants relative
to our Protestant Reformed Churches we did riot refer,                                     FROM .HoLY: WRIT .
neither by suggestion nor in word, 1 to the so-called
"Liberated,' brethren. We tirot.6 about people of Re'-
formed circles who were "pumped full" of the spirit of                        - Exposition <Of Luke 2:4+52
"hatred and antagonism.!' towakd our churches, who
look upon us as. "schismatics ; a church, or rather a                                                          T
                                                                                                               1.
sect, with a  vely strange and never-heard-&f-doctrine."
Did Mr. Reitsma ever me& ;such a "Kberated" broth:                           "Thus also it' is written : `the `first man, Adam, be-
er?-We never did! Hence, there is no discrepancy                         came a living soul ; the last Adam (beca&e) a quicken-
.in our articles in Concowlia &id those in .The Stundard ing Spirit." (I ,Corinthians  15 :45).
Bearer.                                                             .        In  &e attempt to understand the meaning of this
       And as to broth& Reitsma's questions : "Is a person               pas;Sage, it is important to bear-in mind, that the writ-
fundamentally Reformed when he believes that God                         er of this epistle to the Corintliians is here defending
loves all the children who are baptized and would save                   the great  truth of the glad-tidings of the Gospel of
them all? Is a pereon fundamentally Reformed tYhen                       Jesus -Christ; the resurrection from the .dead.              Take
he declares that- Christ died for all, or that: Christ at                this truth out of the Gospel and it is no` longer glad-
least merited the chance of salvation for all?-we tidings having the approval of God. The preacher is
would answer : A goo,d "Liberated" brother would most                    then truly marked and branded a liar; his gospel is
certainly condemn such doctrines; and so would a gqod                    empty, faith,is empty and the believers are then of all
Protestant' Reformed brother. But if our dealings                        people the most miserable. But, thanks  be to God,
with the different types of people whom we.Contact                       such is not the case. Christ is, indeed, `risen and He,
are questionable to or under suspicion by brother                        has become the First-fruits of them. that have fallen .*
Reitsma, we would  r.efer him to the Mission Com-                        asleep !
mittee and our `bonsistory to whom both. the under-                          For by'man came the transgression and-the penalty
signed and Rev. Hofman give a full  ticcount  every                      of death. Thus also by man came the resurrection -of
month,,and  that black on white.                                         the dead. One of our number, born from. a woman and
                                                    A. Cammenga.         mide  under law has come to lift Us out of  `sin and
                                                                         death. He died;' according to the Scriptur,es  and He
                          :,:     3:    4:     *                         arose again the third day according to the same Scrip-
Note by the Editor:                                                      tures !
                                                                             That is good-tidings. It is the glad-tidings of good
       1; I still have an  entifely different  imprerssion of            things, which  shill be unto all the people, unto all
the expressed reaction to the "Declaration" by the Rev.                  the men of God's good-pleasure. Wherefore, we must
Cammenga on the fldor of the synod.  I wish that                         be stedfast, immoveable in the Lord, always abounding
o,thers  that were present at delegates to synod would                   in His work, knowing that our labor and travail is not
express themselves on ,this matter.                                      vain in  the Lord  !`.  -'                  :
       2. Must the Rev. Cammenga turn his comment on                         Such is the gene&l setting of- oui text.
the published letter by Mr. van dixhoorn, published by                       The more particular setting of our text within this
Mr. van  Dixhooln himself  as a contribution in  .The                    general s.cheme is that Paul is her& giving a reply to
Standard l3ea,rer, into-a tirade against me? It was he,                  the infidel .and sceptic  to two questions. The first.is :


                                        THE,STA~DAF~   BEARER                                                        307

the nature of the body that shall be ours in the resur-       ' Someone may say: but was this then God's original,
rection. The other is: the manner of the resurrection         primordial design ? And I `answer with ai emphatic :
act itself. Two distinguishable questions. Yet, they Yes! Thus we read in. Ephesians  1:9-10: "Making
are que$ions, which are most closely related. - One           known unto us the mystery of His will, according to
 can hardly speak of the one without tduching  upon           His good-pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a
the other.                                                    dispensation  - of the fulfiess of times, to suti up all
    To understand the nature of our body that shall be        things in Christ, the things in heaven and the things                      ~
ours after the final resurrection Paul shows us some          upon the earth, in him. . ." . And, again, we read. in
very sharp contrasts.                                         Colossians 1:15-18 : "Who is the image of the invisible
    Fifst of all, there is the cont'rast  of our body now     God, the first-born of all creation ; for in Him were
as it is' by virtue of sin and death ; as it is now in the    all things created, in the heavens and `upon the earth,
state of corruption, mortality, weakness and dishonor.        things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or
The .body that shall be burs will in no wise bear any-        dominions or principalities or powers ; all` things have
More the effects qf sin and death. It will be a body been created through Him and eunto Him ; and He is
ihat is immortal, incorruptible; full of power and            before all things, and in Him all  things.consist (hold
glory. All the  ' effects of  siti arid death will be no together) . And He is' the head- of .ihe body, the church :
more.                                                         whd is the beginning, the first-born of the dead ; that
    However, it will not, be a body tha.t brings us back `ip all things he might have the preeminence." And we
again in tile position of the ~htiman race in the first       cannot ,fail to add verse 19 (idem) ' f`For it .was the
Adam. If we may  hypotheticdlly  think away sin for           good-p&asure  (of the Father) that in .Him should all
a moment, and, further, think of the whole hum& race          the fulness dwell, -and through Him to reconcile till
as it came forth out of Adam never having fallen;             things unto Himself, having made peace through the
as ajways having remained standing'at the tree of life        blood of His cross, through Him, I say, whether things
then there would have beencno sin. But then we would          upon the earth or things in heaven."
Ilot yet have come to the body that shall be ours in`the         There is more iti this latter passage which is worthy
resurrection in the Last-Adam, Who `tecame the quick-         of quotation. We hope to refkr to later on. But' for
ening Spirit.                      .                          our present purpose, what we have quoted is sufficient.
    For there- is a natural body and there .is a -spiritual It is surely evident that the ,Cross  and resurrection
body. And t&e spiritual is-not First,  but the natural        of Jesus Chri& and the renewal ok all things, the re-
,and then the spiritual.                  _                   constittition of all things is no `accident, but that it is
    This contrast of the liatural (psychical) ( body in       the eternal, sovereign and incotiprehensible and all- .
the first Adam and the Spiritual (pneumatical) body           glorious purpose of our God and Miker !
in the last Adam is the contrast In our text. And, we            Y,es, God made  &he  psych&al (natural) first and
may well add, it is a pivotal question. Here we have          then the pneumatical, the spiritual.
the fundamental and all-controling lines of history.             `The line as drawn by Paul in Colossians 1 :i5-21
Here the believer lifts up, his weary head in hope and        we must keep  before our mind in our study here of                    '
finds sweet Y;est and repose in the e%ernal  good-pleasure    I Corinthians  15:45.
of God, and in His wisdom arId matchless design in all           And what do we then, to speak more particularly, "
things.          .                             ~ .            notice?
    What is this contrast9                                       There are two poles in history, if I may so speak.
    It is, the Christological design of God already in        It is the natural, the psychical in Ada& who is oilt of
Genesis l-3. Christological design? "We read noth- .the earth, earthy (not earthly !) . He is earthy, for
ing of the Christ as yet in Genesis 2,". someone' may he is taken out of the eafth. And this earthy is con-
interrupt ! Adam knew nothing of it, -as ye,& He sim-         trasted %th the heavenly. The other pole is the Second,
`ply had the command to live by, didn't he? Why speak the L-ast Adam, after Whom po other Adam can come,
of Chr&ological design in Genesis  2, while: in reality       Who was made by God a quickening Spirit.
we read of .the revelation of Christ only at Genesis 3,          Let US try to see this.
where the announcement is:made  to the Serpent, that             The text, says : the first -Adam was -made a living,
his head will be crushed by the Seed of the woman ?           soul. (egeneto . . . eis psucheen zoosan). And Paul
    We answer : because the Word of God itself teaches        adds too: "Thus it is written". And we believe it was ~                         -
us that this design was there ; it was there even in          written for our eomfort and instruction, for us, I say,
God's intention. It was not merely there as a back-           upon  whoin the ends of the ages  haGe come. It is ,
door held open, like our fire-escape! .It was there in        written, in order that, when we stand at the grave's
,God's  design. The natural, says Paul in verse 46-47,        brink (and who does not?)  `  wk by faith in Christ
`is first and theti thespiritual. In God's design, in His     crucified, dead arid buried might read of the Christ-
design  it was thus!  -                                       ological design  and motives of God, as .He created all        . ,


 308                                       T H E   STA'NDih-   BEAR.ER

 things into Christ, who is the First-born of all crea-                  ply preaching about the last things! But preaching
 tion !                                                                  the last things as the things of Him Who tells the
        Let us not be affrighted by so rich a  ,clisplay of              end from the beginning. Just as one may preach a
 sovereign wisdom and good-pleasure for our salvation                    sermon .or two a year on the topic election, without
  in Christ. Neither let us be told, that this design of                 having election as the very heart-beat in the preaching;.
  God makes history meaningless. Rather let-us humbly                    so also one may preach about the ends of the -ages in
  acknowledge, that this alone gives the meaning of                      a very Arminian and Dispensational way, without
  History. And by faith let us see our place in it all,                  really preaching the Consummation of all things in
  even at the.mouth of. the grave, and let us shout: 0                   heaven and on earth, as spoken of in Ephesians 2 and
  death, where is thy sting, 0 grave, where is tlny vic-                 as outlined by Paul in Colossians `i :15-20 !
 tory. Then by faith we lean in the everlasting arms                        It is now some fifteen years ago that the writer of
  of God in the Son,, the man Jesus, and die happily.                    these lines. wrote an article in the Standar'd Bearer on
  Meanwhile we shall. labor and travail, knowing that                    the subject : "Election-Preaching and the Preaching of
  in Him our labors are not vain ! History has meaning,                  Repentance". When one really preaches `repentance
 it has the meaning of, the realization of the summing                   from sin he is also preaching election. He is then pos-
  up of all things in Jesus Christ our Lord. .He must be                 sibly-not -preaching on election, but his preaching then
 the First-born of all creation as the First-born out of                 has the heart-beat of  <God's elective grace in it. So,
thedead!        '                                                        too, one who preaches well eon Genesis 2, he really
        That is the meaning of history.                                  preaches an eschatological sermon. Thus it is done
        It is the wisdom of God in Christ crucified. I              -    by Paul in I Corinthians  15:45; Saying: "And thus
    `Thus it is written. It is written in #Genesis  2 :7.                it is written !"
  And this word is here, in the text, administered'in its                                    __ (.                  Geo. C. Lubbers.  _
 Christological design to the church of ,God in the.ends
  of the ages.. That is why it was written. It was writ-                      .              l&o  `km  ecz-0                     %
 ten up to the very present moment; It was penned by
  a holy man, moved unto' this not by himself, but he
  was moved by the Holy Spirit. God would have  us
  know this` Word. And it must be preached to us by                                 IN  HIS-  F E A R   .'                                 -
  Paul. That which is written must be interpreted in
  the light of all of God's works, in the light of the all-
' controlling Design of God in dealing with a WL& in oacr                  Church Memberskip In ,His Fear '
 `trccnsgnession, and also with a mqn in OUP resurrection.                                             9.
        And thus it is written.
        It was thus written down through the centuries.                      - Not Forsaking the Assemblies of the Saints.
        But now it is not only written in the less under-                                       ~.i (continued)
  standable form of Genesis 2, taken by itself,, but it is                  Once again let us' remind ourselves of, our aim in
  also written as interpreted by' the' apostle.                          this discussion. It -is not to formulate some merely
        Genesis 2 tells us of the creation of Adam. l&, it               external rules and regulations for church attendance,
  does not tell us everything. It does not tell us every-                and thus to add line upon line and precept upon pre-
  thing that God would do with this  .Design. But all                    cept. Rather is our intention to discuss "in His,fear"
  that God does further in His  Christologieal-Soterio-                  what our attitude as members of Christ's church should
  logical purposes is built on this, it uses this. It uses               be toward the assemblies of the saints, and in our dis-
 .it not as an after-thought, as it clear from Colossians 1              cussion to examine ourselves.             Hence, we must also
  quoted above, but He uses it as the foundation. of the                 beware in our self-examination in this matter that we
*. building, the house eternal in the  hea?&.  II  Cor-                  do not conclude by boasting in the flesh instead of
  5 :I-3. The natural (psychical) is first, then the                     worshipping ,God in spirit and in truth and glorying
  spiritual.                                        I. /         .:.:    in Christ Jesus.. Outwardly faithful church attend-
        This is not dry dogmatics ! This is the administra-              ance in itself is of'no avail whatsoever.
  tion of. the seCrets  of God concerning our salvation to                   From that point of view- we have' discussed the
  ,our  c o m f o r t .                                                  deviation called ,onaer&m, attempting not to multiply _
        A good supralapsarian sermon is indeed a.comfort;                precepts; but to point the direction, first of all;  in
  ing sermon in the .ends of the ages!                ..I.  .<.          regard to improper reasons for absence from the meet-
        To preach well on Genesis 2 is to preach wellon                  ings for public worship. From that- same viewpoint
  Revelation 22.                                            1            we .would like now to discuss proper reasons. And
        `That is really Eschatological preaching; .:.`. Not sim-         again, it is .very well possible that you will be able to


                                              T H E   S'TANDARQ   `BEAiiER                                                 309

 add many'more reasons. We intend, however, mer.ely                     A-very ordinary instance of such a proper reason.
to point the direction.                                              you have in the case of sickness. Through it, which,
                      :                                  J
                      *     8          g     *-         _,           as we all know, is under the control of our heavenly
                                                                     Father,. the Lord may prevent a person,-be it for
 PropIer        Reason&           j                r                 only a Sunday or two, or be- it for months or even
                                                                     years,-from gathering with God's people on the sab-
     As this is being written,  .we are  ,reminded in a-- bath. Far different is, their position than that of
 very concrete way of a proper reason for absence from               those who for one reason-or another have refused to
 church. For today, Sunday, we are in the midst of a                 go up unto God's house. These-have a desire to hear
 howling blizzard, the worst of the year, h&e in north; the Word of God proclaimed, but cannot. They have a
 west Iowa. The little town pf Doon is isolated from                 desire to worship the Lord, but are prohibited. They .-
 the rest `of the world except for telephone and radio.              have a yearning for the courts of the Lord, but the
 All roads are- blocked in the area; In  fact, even in               way is closed.. Instead they must languish on beds of
 town it is. dif?icult,.  to distinguish the streets from the        suffering, and must be satisfied with -thoughts and
 ,surrounding  landscape ,as the wind, in gusts up to 40             mental pictures of the gathering,of  God's people from
 miles per hour, piles up the snow, both old and new                 which they must be absent, and they anticipate the
and still falling, .in gigantic drifts. Even for those of            day when, if it `be the Lord's will, they can once again
 LIS who live in town there is no question of holding                assemble with the saints as before.
 services today : it is simply impossible. And for those                Another rather difficult problem presents itself in
 of our congregation who are tillers of the soil it is               the case of families with little children. The problem
 simply out of the question even. to reach the roads.                has various ramifications. It is a different problem,
 The only ministry of the Word which we shall hear                   for example, in a large congregation and a large audi-
 today is by the Rev. De Boer on'the radio.                          torium than in a small one. It is often possible, or
     And thus it has been for the past several days. `more easily possible, to take little children to church in  -
 The present storm is only the climax of the severe                  a small congregation, while it. is impossible' or imprae-.
 -winter which has struck this area in the past couple               tical to do the same in a large congregation. I re-
 weeks. A pr~evious storm had already cut attendance                 member well the annual occasion when all in our Fuller
 down to less than half a week ago, and had forced the               Ave: congregation took their little children and even
 postponement of Prayer Day services last Wednesday.                 babes in arms to the Christmas program of the Sunday
 And people were just digging themselves out when the School. Those -who know will agree that the disturb-
 .present  blizzard struck with greater fury. Besides the            ance caused was sometimes a rival attraction to the
 cancellation of services,. all activities of -societiesj  `cate-    program. Imagine that the same thing was done every
 chism classes, etc., are either hampered or entirely                Sunday in the services. It would become well-nigh
eliminated.                                                          impossible for th,e minister to preach and for the con-.
   - This is, of course, no Chamber of ~Cbmmerce adver-              gregation to listen. In a small congregation that prob-
 tisement..                                                          ability is -much less. There are only a few' such little
     Nor did we refer to this-bit of personal experience             children or babies, and the probability of disturbance.
 for- that reason.                                                   is proportionately less. Hence, at the risk of occasional
     Nor do we write in order to give the impression                 disturbance it may be possible to take little `ones to
 that this is an everyday experience in these-parts. It, church with us. But even then, R is at best a risky
 is unusual.                                                         proposition, and' bf questionable value. Mother or
     But nevertheless, it,drives  home a point concretely,           Father, as the case may be, sits on "pins and needles"
 namely, that sometimes. we are placed in circumstances              all through. the- service, striving to keep the little. one
 when it is  impossible  to attend church, and when,                 quiet and anxiously wondering whether too much dis-
 therefore, there is a very proper reason for-not attend-            turbance is caused. Even the practice of having a
ing` services, whether it be once or twice a Sunday.                 loudspeaker connection from. the auditorium to, an-
 Correctly stated, there are times .when the Lord Him-               other, separate room, is often of little value. True, in
 self makes it impossible. And the Lord, we know, has                same. cases it is pr'ofitable, since it allows one parent
 His own good reasons. True, in the instance above,                  to remain in church at least, while the other parent
 the. Lord made it impossible for the whole congrega-                can take the disturbing off-spring out. But if you
 tion, and also only for-a short time. But the Lord can get three or four such disturbance in a little room, you
 make it impossible for an individual only, and He can               may well imagine that the separate "auditorium" is
 do so for a long'period of time also. And we.submit `changed into a nursery and that. the' loud-speaker may
 that only then, when the Lord Himself puts us in a                  as well. he turned.     .
 position in which we cannot gather with' His people,--                 To be sure, there comes a time when parents must
 only then may we be absent.                                         begin to take their children to church, And we would

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 310                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D -   B E 'A R E R

  not .deny that time must not begin too late. In `fact,        already lost; his taste for the weekly gatherings of
  we believe that often this is started too late. Even          God's people for Scripture study in' the societies, and
  when a child cannot understand a sermon, -he dan cer-         soon becomes remiss in his `duty to -bring his children
  tainly be trained to go to church and to sit still, and he    to catechism faithfully, and'reaps to himself and to his
  -may develop `a healthy habit of going to church, may family the reward of his own. way.
  be impressed with the ,idea that there is something              But in the way.of faithful, regular, and spiritually
  special about the sabbath, which is also forhi,m.             alert attendance of the services for divine worship we
  :     But `our boint is now that yo,u cannot expect .par-     receive a rich reward. `Establishment in the truth
  e&s with little  children, except in rare instances, to       is  ,its reward. Growth in the knowledge of Christ,
_ both be in church twice on Sunday. It is necessary            which *is incomparably excellent ! Development and
  for father and mother to take turns, `or to get .a baby- cultivation of our spiritual taste for spiritual things
  sitter in some instances, in order that they' may at          is to' be had in that way. And the assurance of living
  least attend once per Sunday. It is necessary both-for        membership, which shall endure unto everlasting life,
  themselves and for the rest of the congregation, in           is to be received there, where the Word of God is pro-
  order that the services may be conducted, decently and        claimed !
  in good order. 311 other words, also in `this instance                                        , H. C. Hoeksema.
  the Lord Himself, in giving us littIe children, makes it .
  temporarily impossible for us to attend church every                                                             :
  time services are held. And such parents are certainly                       .--a'
  not to be classified as oncers.
  Also here, however, a word of warning is in place.
  We must beware that we do not make of our children                    `PE~RISCOPE                                  -
  an excuse to be absent -from church. That can'be done..
 - We must be careful that we do not postpone too long
  the day that we `begin to take junior to church. We           No "Doubl&ack" Theology.
  must our obligation, even though it may be unpleasant
  for a time, until the little one is completely trained to        One of the more difficult elements in the "common
  sit quietly and to listen.                                    grace" struggle in our history, was the element intro-
        lOther  such proper reasons may be found perhaps,       ,duced I .believe  by Van Baalen of the "double-track,`.
  and details might be multiplied. But let this suffice.        That this has indeed taken root in the Christian Re-
                                                                .formed ,Churches is evident to me from my own con-.
  Cowelusion.                                                   tact with various ministers of that denomination.
                                                                That it `must ultimately lead,. if consistently applied,
        And so the `conclusion of the whole matter is that      to the death of all dogmatics and all interpretation of
 `as members of His Church we may not, must not, can            Scripture is very evident to me.
  not forsake the assemblies of .the saints.       For the
  Church is gathered by Christ. It must be and is mani-            Now the question of a "double-track" theology  aiso
 .fest in this world as the gathering of believers and          arises in connection with our understanding t of the
  their L children. It th'erefore  also gathers together, in    theology of the "Liberated,' churches in  the Xether-
  order that it may ,be manifest as a gathering. And he         lands. The question of the "promise of the covenant
  who belongs to that church certainly does gather for all" overagainst the irrefutable revelation of Elec-
  with it.                                                      tion and Reprobation and the reconciling of these two
        And in that way only is-there a blessing. There is      raises the  .question, "Is there a `double-track, per-
  no blessing in the way of forsaking the church ever.          haps?"
  And' to the extent that one is remiss in the., Christian          In this connection our attention fell upon a series
  calling to assemble with the saints, to that extent one       of articles in. "De Reformatie" under the title "De Be-
  also surely misses the blessed assurance that he is a         teekenis van de vrijmaking voor .theologie  en leyen"
  living. members of the body of Christ, and forever            by  Dr: Bremmer. In this series Dr. Bremmer dis-
  shall remain such. That follows automatically; And            cusses the question of common grace and the view of
  anyone who claims that he can with impunity forsake           Dr. A. Kuyper on this score. We do not have the room
  in any .measure the assemblies of the saints and not at. to "discover" this series for you but it `is worthwhile
  all miss that assurance lies. Life is in itself the assur- reading if' you would discover the thought on this
  ante of life. And.> dead works can never result in the        subject.
  growth of that assurance. Rather is the very opposite '         ' However in an appendage "Substraat-of ,Genade"?
  true, and it always becomes manif,est concretely in our       Dr. Bremmer,refutes the position of several men on
  walk. He who has no desire -for the fellowship of             this same question and in this article we have, I be-
  God's people on the sabbath soon loses, or perhaps has        lieve, at least in as far as Dr. Brernmer  is concerned,.


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                                                             c,                       2                                      .
                  -                      - T H E   S T A N D A R D ,   B E 'A R E R                                               311
 the answer to the question concerning a "double-track" there was in aGod's >heart a favorab1.e attitude tow.ards
theology. We quote from Dr. Bremmer :                         ,'
        "                                                                 those wicked contemporaries of Noah? We do not
         . . . .It `is extremely difficult to analyze from these          believe a word of. it . . .                                    -
 twenty pages what the author himself understands by                         "And prhen Prof. Berkhouwer speaks of the. com-
 the longsuffering  of God. We would gladly have seen                     passion of the divine heart in re the fallen world, y&a,
 that he had expressed himself more concretely. How-                      even writes iri reference to the longsuffering of God
ever, he heartily endorses certain statements of others,                  o$er the contempbraries  of Noah, `His heart beat, in'                         '
 and these statements do not leave-a shadow  of.a doubt                   cbmpassion during the building of the ark', then tie
 on  :  this score. Thus he declares to agree with the                    ask anew; but can we seperate the beating of God's
 Three Points of the Synod of Kalamazoo which speak                      heart from His eternal decree of election and reproba-
 `of a favorable attitude -of ,God towards mknkind. `in                   tion? Would God's heart beat; even but for one second,
 general, and not only toward the elect.' And he en-                      in love' and grace, over against those whom He. has
 dors&&e position. of Dr. Van Til who somewhere has                      `hated  with an eternal hatred, and therefore shall hate
 written : `That God's preservatitin of the unrighteous unto all eternity?"                                      -.
 is ,evidence of His favor-towarh them, and that there-                      So far Dr. Bremmer.
 fore there:is some favor shown.-& the urdighteozcs in :                     For the translation of the above we wish to thank
 the fact of his preservation in this world.'
 "                                                                       R e v .           Kok:
         If we consider all these statements then we. are                    I believe the article is plain in itself and speaks
 constrained to ask the question, what does the author                   language with which we all can agree.
 und&tand  by the longsuffering of #God? Is it revela,-                                                                            `,
                                                                                                   *`
                                                                                                      *
 tion of grace, or at `least something intermediate be-                                                    *  *
 tween  gyace and judgment?: For her'ein lie& one of the                 The Suffering of Kofiean.  Christians :
most important points .of the discussion. `Dr. `Befk-
houwer protests  -that `the contrast between elect &d                        From t& Southern presbyterian Journal we take
 reprobate is. constantly intruding `in the exegepis  of. eve? part of a letter' written by Mr. Ko Oon Yong, a
 the Scriptural passages as a principle of exegesis, also                young Christian in Conja, Korea, a clerk in the Chosun.
then when there is no sign of it in the text', and he                    Industrial Bank there. Mr. Ko's letter is dated, Chonju,
complains in this connetition  about "schematic exegesis                 Korea, Novembtir  7, 1950.
which does serious injustice to the' Script&e, and ap-                      "It is almost six months' since .I saw you last.' Dur-                  .
prqaches it from the'riew-point of -special. prejudice'. ing the time almost everything was changed. Our city                                 _  '
But  we  in"turn-ask, is this reproach fair?  May the                    was under  controi  of  Pupp& government- for ten
dogmaticus,  a@ the ex.egete, &a  ~the interpretation. of                weeks. North Korean Army flooded the city on the                      j
.certain passages of Scripture, leave out of consider*                   20th of July. We, all of the Korean people, could
tion what the same Scripture elsewhere teaches con-                      clearly understand what cdmmunism was. They made
cerning election and reprobation? (I und,erscore,  J.H.)                 &.e of the `name of- Justice. They said thejr were fight-
It i? indeed commetidable  that the author rises to the                  ing for Right. We looked at their hands: they were
defence  of the concrete and `anthropomorphistic state-. stained with `blood, the blood of plunder, cruelties,
ments of Scripture. But mu& not we, just because                         murder,  violation of chastity, instead of liberty- for
of the anthropomorphism `in a certain passage, that                      proletariat. They killed many peaceable citizens, re-
speaks of God's attitude over against the fallen world,                  gardless of age and sexes, especially policemen <and
also take into consideration other passages that speak                   Christians. My.  belayed brother was  slaughtejred by
of, this matter. Just exactly in re an anthropompr-                      them. -He was a faithful  Cchristjan.  They  took  me.
phism it is thus,' that the-one fi.gtire or metaphor ex-                 for an American spy : so assaulted me, and I was ilear-
plains and compliments the other . . . -Hence,  in ord&                  ly killed. They carried, away all of my hous&hold ef-
to determine the. attitude of God, in certain concrete                   fects  for.  the reason of reactionary. I cannot help
cases, I-shall have to give account of His election and                  bearing a grudge against, them. They lost 99 percent
reprobation. And when we do this, then this. is not                      of the whole nation's support: not only bburgeois sup-
an intrusion of a  strang& principle of exegesis, but                    port but also all proletarian support, even the farmer
then we cleave to the  old Refortied rule; `Interpret                    and the laborer. We Koreans  shall.nev&r be  fooied  by
Sciipture with Scripture'.; . ;                                          their,good-sounding slogans and propaganda . . .?'
      Thus it was .&so with God's attitude which revealed                                          :i: g  :,: Q
itself unto the contemporaries of Noah. `Exactly as w.e
confess in the Canons of Dordt,that  God seriously calls                 Chaqch Merger with a slightly cliff erent skmt :
through the Gospel unto faith  and repentance. But                          In a yecent number of the "Southern Presbyterian
does this justify &he conclusion, that there is with God,; -Journal" on of the coniributing edit&s, Dr. Wm C.
or to speak in the words of Prof. Berkhouwer, that                       Robinson is discussing the fact that t,he Associate .R&
                             I               0.    I
             .
                                                        1           0         _  j


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                                                                                            ,            '
                  .                                                                                                                                                         -----c-                     -     kL.
                                                                                                                                   ___   .__   ._-~.mm-__-.----  -:i-
                                                                                                                                                                           ._j     `.     2                   . ..- . .
          312                                                   _                      .THE  S T A N D A R D   B&A.RER                                                -
                                                  0                                                                                                                                              .i:
          formed Presbyterian Churches are at `present contern-                                                                          :              I T   I S   F I N I S H E D   2
          plating a merger either with the United. Presbyterian                                                                          Hark ! the voice of love and mercy. ,.
          or with the Southern Presbyterian Church.                                                                                      ;Sounds aloud. from Calvary ;
                Now merger as such is hardly church news in the;e                                                                                                                                                    .F:  i
                                                                                                                                         See! it rends the rocks  asL?nder,
          days of so-callecl ecumenicity  and church'-merger. &It                                                                        Shakes the earth, and veils the sky:                                                                '
.         tvhat struck our attenti6n is the attitude toward this                                                                              _ "It  ,is finished  i"
          pa2ticulay merger  refjected `in the following  wor&`:                                                                         Hear the dying Savior cry.  ,`..                                                                     *
          "Now the larger Church is always willing to  unite
          with ihe smaller. Thus it is ho credit to our denomina-                                                                        Now redemption is completed,  :                                                                                _
          tion that we are ready to receive our brethren who                                                                             Sin  atoned,  the curse removed,  1  .:
          bear- such a good name among us. We can, however,,                                                                             Satan; death, and hell d,efeated,
          #how our Christian consideration by taking care that                                                                           At His rising fully proved.
          in the plan of union we preserve the assets. of their                                                                               All is finished!  -,
          heritage . . . The most conspicuous testimony of the                                                                           Here -our hopes do rest unmo+ed.
          Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has been the
          use of the Psalms in Christian'worship. This, as well                                                                          Finished all the types  and  shadbwi
          as such spiritual assets as are' better known. to them                                                                                                                                                           -,
                                                                                                                                         Of the  cerem&Yial  law; .
          than to the writer, ought to be conserved in the union                                                                         Finished all that' God had promised:  '
          off e_red them."                                                                                                               Death and hell no more shall awe.                                                              .'
           "In the past  Asso&&~%esbyterian  congregations                                                                                       "It is, finished !"                            -                                ,-I
          have come into our Church with permission to use.
     -                                                                                                                                  1 Saints, ,from hence `your comfort drag:`.
          exclusively the psalms in th,eir singing,, and of course                                                                 G
          this privilege ought to be  extend&d.  But over and                                                                            Tune, your harps anew, ye sel;a&s !
          above that, our -Church  ought  td be enriched as a                                                                                                                                                                    ., ,
                                                                                                                                        G J&n to sing the pleasing theme:
          whole by the addition of this testimony . , . Let the                                                                          All in earth and heaven's uniting,
          united Church gather in, nc$ dissipate,, the st?ength  of                                                                     ' Join to praise  Immafiuel's name:
          the A. R. P. t&timony !"                                   :I. . . . . i,
                 "Similarly, we hope that th$r,fine  emphasis on the                                                                             Hallelujah !
                                                                                                                                        , Glory to the bleeding. Lamb !
          Sabbath will tone` up our  ~obg!$@nce  of the Lord's                                                                                                      -Rev. Jonathan Evans.
          D a y . "                                                           :  i.  "
                                                                               4'                                                `_
                                                                                             5.               Howerzyl.                                                                                                                       ,
                                                                                                                                                             -::---                                                                     ,

                                            %          '
                             \                              -:-                                                                                         ADVANCE NOTICE !
                                                                                                                                   The League of tien's Societies will have `the@.  an-
                                       ^                                                                                        nual membership meeting on the 19th of April at the
                                                       Strength in Weakness                                                     Creston Protestant Reformed  ,=Church.  R,everend  E.
                                            I could not do without Thee,                                                        Emanuel will be the guest speaker.
                                                  I cannot stand alone,                                                            All men in this area are invited to attend this im-
                                            I' have no strength dr goodness,                                     I              portant meeting.
                                                                                                                                                                            "
           _                                      No wisdom of my own ;                                                                                                                           I                                                     I
                                                                                                                                                             -
                                  .         But Thou,. beloved Saviour,                                                                                           `A : - - - - -
                                                                                                                                                   .
                                             Art all in  :a11 to me,
                                            And. weakness will be power,                                                                      SUBSCRIBERS - PLEASE' NOTE !
                                                  When leaning hard  qn Thee.'                                        :  _       ,.Quc to the- &eased cost of printing `@he Standard
                                                                                                                      _  ::.
                       ,,                                                                                                       Beare; it has. been necessary' to raise the subscript.&
                                                            -z-                                                                 l&ice to $3.?Q:per year. This wiil take effect with the
                                                                                                                                subscriptions coming due on April 1st and thereafter.
                                                  CLASSIS  E A S T                                                              Will you please refer to-your subscription date printed
                                                                                                                                opposite-your riame on this issue, and if past due, for-
          will meet in regular session-at the Hudson.ville Pro- ward a kemittance  at once. .Your co-operation is kind-
          testant Reformed Church on  .Wednesday, April 4, ly requested. .At the present time there is no change
          at 9 o'clock A. M.                                                                                                    in membership price  which includes the subscriptio$.
                                                                                       D.  `aonker, (S.  C:)                                                                                   THE` .BOARD.


